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Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday, September 29, to participate in the INDIA bloc meeting scheduled for Wednesday, September 30.

 

Speaking to the media, Banerjee said the opposition’s focus was Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission’s software team. She accused them of cheating the public and said opposition leaders had referred to Kumar as “Vanish Kumar”.

 

The meeting is expected to discuss a proposed nationwide protest over alleged irregularities in the electoral process. The political dispute has intensified after an investigative report claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months concerning decisions and procedures connected with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

 

The Election Commission, however, has rejected the claim that these objections reflected institutional dissent. It has maintained that all decisions relating to the SIR were approved unanimously by the Commission.

 

Separately, the Congress Working Committee held its meeting at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and senior leader Sonia Gandhi were among those who attended.

 

The CWC adopted resolutions demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the suspension of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the restoration of 13 crore 30 lakh names that the party claims were deleted from the rolls.

 

The Congress described the situation as a “grave danger to our democracy”, alleging that the RSS-BJP had captured the electoral process with the alleged support of the Election Commission under the current CEC.

 

The party also said the developments supported Rahul Gandhi’s warnings about what he calls “Vote Chori”. It cited concerns over the selective implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, the reliability of electronic voting machines, additions and deletions from electoral rolls, changes to the process for appointing the CEC and the provision of lifelong immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner.