NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday questioned the legal immunity granted to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses him to “steal elections”.In a post on X, Gandhi wrote, “Q. Why is CEC Gyanesh Kumar the only Indian with lifelong blanket legal immunity? A. Because PM Modi uses him to steal elections.”This comes as top leaders of the INDIA bloc met in New Delhi on Wednesday to finalise an action plan for a joint agitation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with the Congress asserting that the opposition stands united to protect the Constitution from “repeated assaults” by the Modi government, including its alleged “vote chori gameplan” to remain in power.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, and leaders of the SP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), among others, attended the meeting.“The INDIA janbandhan meeting just got underway. The parties participating are the Congress, Samajwadi Party, All India Trinamool Congress, NCP(SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), Rashtriya Janata Dal, CPI(M), CPI, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, CPI-ML, IUML, Kerala Congress (M), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, RevolutionarySocialist Party, Kerala Congress (Jacob) and All India Forward Bloc,” Ramesh said in a post on X.“These and other Opposition parties stand united to protect the Constitution of India from repeated assaults of the Modi Government – most recently its Vote Chori gameplan through the ECI to remain in power,” he added.Sources said a draft notice for a fresh motion seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was ready and would be discussed at the meeting for approval.The DMK and AAP did not attend the meeting, while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was also absent due to the Rajya Sabha nomination process in Uttar Pradesh.The meeting comes days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying they had been issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
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Amid scrutiny over the concerns raised by the two Election Commissioners, the Election Commission said that differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberations in any institution. It also asserted that all its orders had full legal sanction and followed established statutory procedures.The last meeting of the INDIA bloc was held on June 8. Emphasising unity against the BJP, the alliance members had unanimously decided to seek the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET-CBSE row and write to the Chief Justice of India on the SIR exercise and “vote loot”.
