As protests against him boil over in Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will be in Uttar Pradesh on Monday to chair a major meeting in Meerut. The CEC, against whom the INDI Alliance is taking out a protest march in Ramlila Maidan, will review election preparations in 18 districts across four divisions of western Uttar Pradesh: Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad, and Aligarh.
Gyanesh Kumar and the state's Chief Electoral Officer will review the election arrangements in these districts. Officials from the respective districts will also give presentations on their preparations.
Interestingly, the visit was initially scheduled to happen last month. His original schedule was to visit Meerut on September 25th, but his visit was postponed for unknown reasons. Administrative preparations are underway in anticipation of his visit.
Meanwhile, opposition parties organised a symbolic 'people's impeachment' and a 'mock parliament' against Gyanesh Kumar at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence at 10 Rajaji Marg.
Held in the garden of Kharge's residence, the stage for this "mock parliament" was modeled after the actual Lok Sabha. It featured wooden panels at the back, a semi-circular arrangement for MPs to sit, and microphones installed in the first three rows.
In the session chaired by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, opposition MPs, leaders and civil society representatives unanimously passed a resolution accusing the Chief Election Commissioner of "cutting votes to steal the election" and demanded that he be tried for treason and sent to jail.
While presenting the impeachment motion in the 'Mock Parliament', Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge made six main points, accusing the Chief Election Commissioner of working at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Kharge alleged that Gyanesh Kumar removed the names of 13.2 crore voters from the list through the SIR campaign.
