Keralam Assembly To Move Resolution Seeking Removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Keralam’s Congress-led government will move a resolution in the state Assembly on Monday, seeking to have the Union government remove Gyanesh Kumar as Chief Election Commissioner. With that, the Keralam Assembly will become the first in the country to move such a resolution.

Chief Minister V D Satheesan is scheduled to move it, according to the Legislative Assembly bulletin. The second session of the 16th Legislative Assembly opens on Monday.

In September last year, the House passed another resolution. It was then moved by the Left Democratic Front government against rolling out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The latest motion goes further. It asks for Kumar’s removal, the restoration of voting rights for eligible voters taken off the rolls after anomalies in the SIR process are corrected, and a change in the way Election Commissioners are chosen.

Resolution Sets Out Demands

The resolution lays out three demands. First, it calls for Kumar’s removal as Chief Election Commissioner. It also wants the voting rights of all eligible voters removed from the electoral rolls to be reinstated once the anomalies in the SIR process are fixed.

The third demand is for the committee that selects Election Commissioners to be reconstituted. The panel would then include the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The resolution says serious doubts are being raised over the Commission’s impartiality and that removing the CEC is necessary to restore the body’s credibility. “Robbing off the voting rights of minorities, migrants, marginalised sections and the young through technical manipulation and irregularities is a violation of democratic principles,” it added.

It also claims that lakhs of eligible voters were removed under the “guise” of SIR. The text does not name Keralam specifically, even though the last Assembly elections there were held after the process. Neither the Congress nor the CPI(M) had raised allegations in the state during the SIR process about eligible voters being removed from the electoral rolls.

Assembly Strength and Stakes

The numbers point to passage. In the 140-strong Assembly, the Congress-led United Democratic Front has 102 members. The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front has 35 MLAs, and the BJP has three legislators.

The resolution is expected to be passed because the Congress and the CPI(M) are both part of the national campaign and the ongoing protest seeking the CEC’s removal.

There is precedent for that in the House. Over the years, the Keralam Assembly has passed several resolutions unanimously with the backing of both the CPI(M) and the Congress.

Earlier SIR Resolution

The Assembly had already taken up the SIR issue earlier. Last September, the then Left Democratic Front government moved a resolution urging the Election Commission to withdraw its decision to roll out SIR across the country.

Then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan moved that resolution under rule 118 of the Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Assembly. It was passed unanimously in the state Legislative Assembly, making Keralam the first in the country to bring a resolution against SIR.

That earlier resolution said the Election Commission’s move had raised serious concern that SIR was intended to implement the National Register of Citizens in an indirect way.