New Delhi: The widening trust deficit between the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Opposition is set to manifest itself in the form of an unprecedented impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in Parliament.
Opposition sources said Monday that the notice for the motion, currently being drafted with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) taking the lead, is likely to be submitted soon so that it can be taken up for voting and discussion during the ongoing Budget session itself.
The Opposition has been mulling such a step against the CEC since August 2025, when 20 parties had come together to issue a joint statement underlining that the poll body, under his watch, has “completely failed” in discharging its constitutional duty of ensuring free and fair polls.
On Monday, the first day of the second phase of the Budget Session, the issue returned to the Opposition’s table, with the TMC flagging the need to move ahead at a time when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is on a sit-in against the contentious deletion of names under the EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in many states, including poll-bound West Bengal.
The matter came up at the meeting of the INDIA bloc chaired by the Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, before the House proceedings began.
The TMC, which had been staying away from these coordination meetings over the last few sessions of the House, also attended the meeting. Satabdi Roy, the party’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, represented the TMC at the meeting.
As the Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the Budget session, US-Israel war with Iran has reached our backyard.
In this context, it is imperative to have a full-fledged discussion on the current geopolitical crisis. A one-sided statement by the EAM is not the solution.… pic.twitter.com/xjggWf59KS
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) March 9, 2026
At the meeting, where a decision was taken to press for a discussion on the war in West Asia, on which External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar gave a statement in both chambers of the House, the Opposition also agreed to work on the proposal to move against the CEC, who is currently in West Bengal with the full bench of the Election Commission.
The Congress, upbeat after receiving the TMC’s pledge that it will vote in favour of the motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, readily agreed to endorse the proposed impeachment process against Kumar.
“It is teamwork; no one-upmanship involved,” said a TMC leader who did not wish to be named.
Under Article 324 of the Constitution of India, which does not use the word impeachment, the Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only on the grounds that are applicable to judges of the Supreme Court.
The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act 2023 also states that the CEC “shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court”.
Currently, the removal procedure for judges for “proved misbehaviour” and “incapacity” is governed by the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968. For the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to accept any impeachment motion, at least 100 and 50 members respectively need to sign in favour of it.
Subsequently, following a laid-down process which includes setting up a three-member committee, both chambers of Parliament need to pass the removal motion with a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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