Keralam Assembly passes resolution seeking removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The Keralam Legislative Assembly on Monday passed a resolution asking for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the first time a state legislature has taken such a step against a sitting CEC.

Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan moved the resolution under Rule 118 on the opening day of the session. It was adopted with amendments. The Left Democratic Front, the opposition in the House, backed it. The BJP’s three MLAs opposed it.

What the resolution says

The text accuses the Election Commission of serious irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It says eligible voters were removed without clear criteria or prior notice, and that marginalised communities, minorities, migrant workers and young voters risked losing the vote through “technical manipulations”.

It cites reports that the powers of Electoral Registration Officers were bypassed through software, that Form 6, used to add new voters, was amended against the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and that a majority of the Commission’s members had disagreed with these decisions. Denying citizens the vote, it says, violates Article 326 of the Constitution.

The resolution makes three demands: restore the names of eligible voters who were wrongly excluded, start proceedings to remove Gyanesh Kumar, and reconstitute the committee that selects election commissioners so that it includes the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. The present law gives a Union Cabinet minister the third seat in place of the Chief Justice.

Our stand is unequivocal. The right to vote must be protected.

Amendments on the floor

Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan suggested a verbal change, accepted by the government, so that the text speaks of “crores” of excluded voters across the country in place of “lakhs”. Saji Cherian moved an amendment that put the number of voters excluded at 24 lakh and referred to software called “eci.net”.

BJP MLA V. Muraleedharan sought two additions. One would have recorded that the Election Commission had itself called the media report on Form 6 incorrect. The other read: “We strongly condemn the attempts by vested interests to discredit the Election Commission, a constitutional body.” The government rejected the BJP’s amendments.

The BJP had signalled before the session that it would turn the argument back on the ruling Congress. “What is the legitimacy of this Assembly? Is this an illegal Assembly or a legal one,” state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on 9 October. His argument: if Congress leaders doubt elections held after the SIR, the same doubt applies to the House elected in April, and the Chief Minister should explain himself or resign.

What the resolution can do

A state Assembly has no power to remove a CEC. Under Article 324(5) of the Constitution, the Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only in the same way as a Supreme Court judge, by a motion passed in both Houses of Parliament with a special majority. Opposition MPs’ earlier notices to remove Gyanesh Kumar were refused by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman in April.

The vote in Thiruvananthapuram came on the same day that INDIA bloc parties planned a march in Delhi to the Supreme Court over the SIR and the CEC. The Election Commission had not responded to the resolution by Monday afternoon.