Congress huddle before INDIA bloc meet as EC row revives, and tests, Opposition unity

The Opposition’s INDIA bloc has found a cause to unite again, courtesy of the Election Commission of India (EC) and, more particularly, its chief, Gyanesh Kumar.

The EC imbroglio, triggered by recent reports of serious disagreements among its top bosses over various aspects of the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, will be at the centre of discussion when senior INDIA bloc leaders meet in New Delhi on Wednesday (September 30).

A day earlier, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest-decision making body of the INDIA bloc’s largest constituent, the Congress party, will also meet to chart the party’s strategy on politically weaponising the latest EC row and to outline issues for broader Opposition engagement.

Agenda of meeting

Sources in the INDIA bloc said the meeting is expected to officially endorse a united call for Gyanesh Kumar’s “immediate resignation” as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in light of the revelations made by The Indian Express. Opposition leaders believe the allegations made in the news reports were unwittingly “confirmed by the EC itself through its press note” issued on September 26.

Also read: Oppn protests across states seek CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, turn up heat over SIR

Knowing fully well that Kumar is unlikely to resign, the bloc is also expected to reiterate its demand for the CEC’s removal under provisions of Article 324 (5), a fresh notice for which is likely to be submitted in both Houses of Parliament by Opposition MPs. A similar petition submitted by 73 INDIA bloc MPs in the Rajya Sabha on April 24 is still awaiting a ruling by the House Chairman, CP Radhakrishnan.

Effect of EC’s Press note

Amid the political turmoil triggered by revelations of dissenting views expressed by Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi against seemingly arbitrary changes made to the SIR process by Kumar, the EC announced a slew of decisions on Saturday (September 26).

The EC’s move was intended to put a lid on the raging controversy. Instead, the EC press note ended up validating The Indian Express reports, as the new mechanisms agreed upon by the “full commission” seemed to address the exact grievances that Sandhu and Joshi had reportedly raised in writing on at least 14 occasions in the past 10 months.

This, the Opposition believes, has “not just cast a darker shadow on the SIR process but proved beyond doubt what we have been saying all along: that this whole process is illegal and unconstitutional because one man (the CEC) was arbitrarily doing whatever his political masters wanted with the voter lists,” said RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha.

INDIA bloc’s challenge

The Opposition has already taken to the streets protesting against an “illegal SIR” and demanding Kumar’s resignation. On Monday, while the Congress mobilised its district units to carry out protests across 1,000 locations across the country, including a march in Delhi alongside civil society groups to the EC headquarters at Nirvachan Sadan, the Left parties too began weeklong nationwide agitation.

Also read: SC sees no urgency in Bengal SIR plea; Bombay HC declines early hearing against CEC

For the INDIA bloc, however, the challenge now isn’t about sustaining its protests or securing Kumar’s exit as CEC, the latter of which even Opposition leaders privately concede is unlikely or even expressing lucidly its concerns with the electoral system it is convinced is “broken and rigged to the BJP’s advantage”.

“The bigger question that we all have to ask ourselves is what do we, as the Opposition, do when all avenues where we could go seeking remedies seem to be compromised. Even if Gyanesh Kumar resigns, does it really mend the system? Who is to guarantee that the new CEC won’t do exactly what Gyanesh Kumar has been doing,” said a senior Congress MP.

Legal route no longer an option

The Congress MP, who is also a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, added, “The other remedy available is going to court but we have all seen the unfortunate attitude of the Supreme Court on the petitions challenging the SIR. Had the court intervened in the way it should have, had it listened to our grievances which were exactly the same that the two Election Commissioners (Sandhu and Joshi) raised, we would have had some confidence but what did the court do instead – it told deleted voters they can vote in the next election. Is that what courts are for, to say ‘ok, something wrong is being done with you but bear with it because you may get remedy later’ (sic)?”

The “efficacy of street protests in forcing the government or supposedly autonomous constitutional bodies, such as the EC, to follow the law” is “only as good as the integrity of the systems... If the government, or the Election Commission or any other institution is just not bothered about what the Opposition or the public in general feel, then the protests will yield nothing,” said Trinamool (Mamata)’s Saugata Roy.

Also read: Appointment dispute and internal dissent: EC faces a checks-and-balances question

Roy added, “We protested against defections but we are still waiting for justice from the courts, the EC and the presiding officers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha; we protested against SIR but the EC went ahead with it because the Supreme Court said it is fine... we can protest on the streets but if the election itself is going to be unfair, how will the outcome be fair.”

Marred by complacency, lack of unity

The INDIA bloc also has tricky challenges to navigate within its coalition. Though parliamentary floor leaders of the INDIA bloc parties had been meeting regularly during the monsoon session of Parliament, adjourned sine die on August 13 but yet to be prorogued, Wednesday will be the first time since June 8 that the alliance’s senior leadership will meet to discuss a joint strategy that goes beyond simply aligning parliamentary activity.

The delay in the conclave, which, as per the June 8 resolution agreed upon by the alliance leaders, was supposed to have happened in August, is a routine reminder of the INDIA bloc’s complacency when not faced with pressing issues that require immediate and joint action. Disagreements in how to engage with an issue too continue to bog the alliance down.

Allies like Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Lalu Yadav’s RJD, as well as erstwhile members of the INDIA bloc such as MK Stalin’s DMK and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, have demanded that results of elections conducted in states such Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, where the SIR was concluded before the polls, should be “scrapped”.

Also read: Opposition looks beyond INDIA bloc to widen Gyanesh Kumar ouster campaign

It remains to be seen whether the Trinamool and RJD press on this demand to be incorporated in the resolution that the INDIA bloc is expected to adopt at its Wednesday meeting. If they do, the complication for the Congress would be obvious: The party romped to power in Kerala and became a partner in government in Tamil Nadu following this year’s post-SIR elections.

Likely questions at CWC meeting

Sources in the Congress said the CWC meeting that is being held before the INDIA bloc conclave would “need to discuss how the party deals if such a demand is raised by our allies”. The Congress, a CWC member said, would prefer the resolution to be formulated in a way that while it demands a scrapping of the entire SIR exercise executed so far, it stops short of demanding fresh polls in states where elections were held after the electoral roll revision.

The Congress is also expected to face some uncomfortable taunts from allies for its state unit leaders repeatedly hurling attacks at them. While her crushing defeat in the Bengal polls and the subsequent disintegration of the Trinamool Congress may have somewhat tamed Mamata Banerjee from keeping the Congress and the Left parties in regular line of her attacks, the Bengal units of the Congress and the CPM have refused to engage in that truce forced by Mamata’s present circumstances.

In poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Congress leader Imran Masood appears to be on the singular mission to destabilise the SP-Congress alliance with his crass and ludicrous remarks directed not just at junior SP leaders like Kairana MP Iqra Hasan but even Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. That Yadav has decided to skip Wednesday’s alliance meeting and send an emissary instead despite his vocal criticism of the poll panel’s conduct and the SIR has already forced senior AICC leaders like KC Venugopal to issue bumbling ‘clarifications’ about the SP chief’s anticipated absence.