Patna, Sep 23 (PTI) The CPI(ML) Liberation on Wednesday slammed Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and sought his “immediate” impeachment, besides suspension of the SIR process.
General secretary of the party, Dipankar Bhattacharya, also called for “fresh polls” in states where elections were held after the Special Intensive Revision of voters’ lists.
Bhattacharya’s remarks followed an Indian Express report that said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders concerning the SIR, which, they said, were taken without their knowledge.
The Left party’s demand was made in a statement shared on X by Bhattacharya, who was one of the petitioners challenging the SIR before the Supreme Court and a key participant of the Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ across Bihar, where the exercise had been carried out for the first time.
According to the statement, “serious disagreement” over SIR within the Election Commission, highlighted by a newspaper report, brought to the fore the “arbitrary role of the CEC”, and the poll panel’s “attempt to downplay it” was intended to “defend the indefensible”.
“We are writing to the President of India, seeking immediate impeachment of Gyanesh Kumar, immediate suspension of SIR process and cancellation of all elections held after the mammoth exercise, and fresh polls in states concerned,” it said.
The CPI(ML) Liberation also said that in its letter to the President, it will seek “restoration of the right to vote of every wrongfully excluded voter”, besides “a Constitutional amendment in compliance with the spirit of the Supreme Court judgment regarding appointment of Election Commissioners and measures to ensure introduce neutrality, transparency and accountability”. PTI NAC RBT
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