NEW DELHI: With 130 Lok Sabha MPs and 63 Rajya Sabha MPs having signed the notice seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Opposition is likely to submit it to the presiding officer through the secretariat of one of the two Houses of Parliament on Friday.It was not clear till late on Thursday evening as to which House will the notice be submitted to first. Since the Opposition will be submitting the notice to the presiding officers of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, as per sources, the notice may in all likelihood be submitted to the other House on Monday.According to rules, at least 100 MPs must sign a notice seeking the removal of the CEC in Lok Sabha, and the required strength in the Rajya Sabha is 50.
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An Opposition leader shared that even as the requisite numbers had already been reached, opposition MPs kept coming till Thursday afternoon to sign the notice. By around 1.30 pm, as many as 130 signatures had been received from members of opposition parties in Lok Sabha and 63 signatures from those in Rajya Sabha. According to sources, all INDIA bloc parties have signed the notice. Besides this, MPs from AAP, which is not part of the INDIA bloc, have also signed the notice. This is the first time a notice has been given seeking removal of the CEC. The nearly half a dozen charges in the notice that will be submitted by the Opposition, according to sources, range from partisan conduct of CEC to mass disenfranchisement.The notice for removal of CEC piloted by TMC follows growing accusations from opposition parties against Gyanesh Kumar. They have accused the CEC of bias and carrying out the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in an arbitrary manner in a bid to aid the BJP. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been leading protests over the SIR process in her state. Other opposition parties too have been attacking the CEC, with Rahul Gandhi steering the “vote chori” campaign.The process for removing the CEC is similar to that for removal of a Supreme Court judge, and the incumbent can be removed only on “grounds of proven misbehaviour or incapacity”.The fact that the BJP alliance has a majority in both houses makes the move a non-starter, but it allows the Opposition to register its joint protest against the CEC.
