Congress Rally Seeks Gyanesh Kumar’s Resignation — SkimNews
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- Congress will begin the rally around noon on Sunday at Ramlila Maidan seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation; tens of thousands are expected, party leaders claim one million could attend, and top figures from the Congress-led INDIA alliance said they would attend.
- Election Commission of India says the Special Intensive Revision is intended to update voter lists by removing names of people who died or moved from registered addresses; Congress alleges it could benefit the BJP by removing eligible voters, and both the ECI and BJP deny the vote-theft accusations.
- Special Intensive Revision removed 130 million names from India's draft voter rolls across the country; Rahul Gandhi said millions were being disenfranchised and called the protest a defense of the Constitution and the vote.
- The Indian Express reported that CEC Gyanesh Kumar made key decisions on the exercise without the agreement of the two other election commissioners, who raised objections on more than a dozen occasions; the ECI said the differences were normal and did not affect its functioning.
- Rahul Gandhi led tens of thousands of protesters in last month's march from Connaught Place to the Supreme Court seeking Kumar's resignation; a party leader said Sunday's rally would be several times bigger.
- Delhi police authorized the rally with conditions that it end by 5pm, install CCTV cameras and avoid marches outside the designated protest site; thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city.
- CJP had all its top leaders detained and many demonstrators beaten and dragged away when security forces broke up the group's 10 October protest against Kumar; BBC reporters saw batons used, though it remains unclear whether senior CJP leaders will attend Sunday's rally.
Why it matters: The rally gives Congress a mass public forum for its demand that Gyanesh Kumar resign over an SIR that removed 130 million names from draft rolls. That sharpens the institutional dispute: the ECI says the exercise updates rolls by removing dead and relocated voters, while Congress alleges eligible voters were removed to benefit the BJP, which denies the vote-theft charge.
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