Leaders of the Congress-led INDIA alliance staged a symbolic “public impeachment” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Rajaji Marg, after Delhi police denied permission to hold the event at Ramlila Maidan. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar presided as Kharge read six charges accusing Kumar of enabling electoral manipulation through the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists.
The six charges
Kharge alleged that Kumar conspired to “steal elections,” deleted 13.2 crore voter entries, rewrote Form 6 enrollment rules, seized control of rolls through the ECINET digital platform, ignored fellow commissioners and acted at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Opposition leaders emphasized that the session was a political protest, not a constitutional removal proceeding, which would require a two-thirds majority in Parliament after a formal motion.
Still, the language was sharp. Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, told attendees that the bloc would march from the Minto Road–Connaught Place junction to Ramlila Maidan on Sunday for a rally branded as a fight against “vote chori,” or vote theft. Jurists, lawyers and voters who say they were dropped from rolls during SIR exercises in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar spoke between the charge readings, describing repeated visits to booth-level officers with Form 7 deletion notices they claim were filed without their knowledge.
Why the venue changed
Authorities had rejected the bloc’s initial plan to mimic parliamentary impeachment imagery on the maidan, citing law-and-order concerns ahead of Diwali crowds. Rain on Friday forced a one-day postponement from Kharge’s lawn, and organizers said they deliberately avoided costumes or props that might be seen as mocking Parliament as an institution. Saturday’s format resembled a town-hall hearing: a chair, a table and a printed charge sheet projected to reporters outside the gate.
The Election Commission has defended SIR as a duplication-cleanup drive and told the Supreme Court on Friday that “false” Form 7 deletion requests discovered in Uttar Pradesh were rejected and that corrective steps were taken. Kumar has not publicly responded to each opposition allegation; commission spokespeople reiterated that commissioners decide by majority vote and that ECINET is an internal workflow tool, not a means to purge legitimate voters.
Political stakes
The protest lands on Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, when Modi inaugurated development projects worth more than Rs 400 crore around the Statue of Unity in Gujarat and highlighted the end of armed Naxalism in a parade of police and paramilitary personnel. Opposition parties contrasted the Gujarat stage with their Delhi narrative of democratic backsliding, hoping to keep SIR controversies alive through state elections scheduled over the next two years.
Numbers matter: INDIA bloc managers said workers from Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh were arriving for Sunday’s rally, but rain forecasts and holiday travel could suppress turnout. Police have issued traffic advisories for central Delhi and deployed additional companies near Connaught Place, signaling they expect tens of thousands rather than the lakh-plus crowds opposition social media accounts projected.
What comes next
Constitutional removal of a chief election commissioner remains unlikely without government support, so the bloc’s immediate goal is reputational pressure and filings already before the courts. Petitions challenging SIR procedures are pending; opposition lawyers hope Saturday’s charge sheet will be cited in affidavits even though it carries no legal weight on its own.
For voters removed from rolls, the practical deadline is shorter: special summary revision windows close on different dates by state, and restored enrollment requires documented proof of residence. Campaign volunteers said they would operate help desks at Sunday’s rally to scan Aadhaar and ration cards, turning the protest into a paperwork clinic if the march proceeds peacefully.