'A collective fight': INDIA bloc closes ranks for joint agitation over SIR, presses for CEC's exit

Top leaders of the opposition 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) of electoral rolls — and to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Sources said a draft notice for a fresh bid to move motions in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha seeking the CEC's removal was ready, and was placed before the leaders for approval.

Present at the meeting were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee and the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, along with leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the CPI, the CPI(M), the NCP(SP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT). The DMK and the AAP stayed away; SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was absent on account of Rajya Sabha poll nominations in Uttar Pradesh and sent representatives.

The meeting came days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past ten months to SIR-related decisions and orders that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation — a report that has given the opposition fresh ammunition on the Commission's internal functioning.

A day after the meeting, Banerjee told a press conference in Delhi that the opposition's fight was "collective". "INDIA Alliance is united and together. It is not about individual decisions. We are like a family, and we will decide collectively on these issues," she said. She disclosed that she had responded promptly when CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby reached out to her on the Election Commission's functioning, calling it a national issue — a notable bridge between two parties with decades of rivalry in West Bengal. She added that regional parties had their own circumstances and compulsions, but that she maintained good relations with leaders including Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar and M K Stalin.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said the Congress wanted "a massive agitation to save democracy" with all political parties, and that the bloc's programme would be coordinated with the Congress's own agitation.

The SIR row has also echoed in Tamil Nadu, where left parties have separately protested over alleged large-scale deletion of voters.