INDIA bloc plans 'public impeachment' of CEC Gyanesh Kumar on 30 October, Ramlila Maidan march on 1 November

Ramlila Maidan is the capital's traditional ground for large political gatherings. It was the venue of the 2011 anti-corruption movement, and the INDIA bloc held a large rally there on 31 March 2024. The choice of place signals that the bloc wants the 1 November march to be judged by the size of the crowd. The 1 November march is meant to be the opposition's biggest rally on the issue. Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba has set a target of 10 lakh participants and has rejected suggestions that it should be postponed or cancelled because of the festive season. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has written to the other INDIA bloc parties asking them to attend on both days.

The bloc's complaints centre on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which it says has deleted lakhs of names, and on what it calls irregularities by the Election Commission. It wants Kumar removed, and it wants the practice it calls 'vote chori' to stop. On 12 October, opposition leaders, activists and civil society members held a 'March for Democracy' to the Supreme Court and filed a joint petition against the revision. The new events are part of the same series of protests. Kumar took over as Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025, and this is not the first time the opposition has gone after him. Reports in 2025 said the bloc was considering a notice for his removal over the voter list revision in Bihar, and the revision has since widened into the nationwide exercise the bloc is protesting now.

The ruling side rejects the allegations. Its position is that the Commission works independently and according to law. The BJP has also objected to the 1 November date for the march, saying it hurts Sikh sentiments, and the opposition has said it will go ahead.

What a public impeachment is, and is not

A public impeachment has no legal force, and the bloc's own leaders describe it as symbolic. The real procedure for removing a Chief Election Commissioner is set out in Article 324 of the Constitution, which says that the CEC can be removed only in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court. That requires a motion supported by a majority of the total membership of each House and at least two-thirds of the members present and voting, on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

The opposition does not have those numbers in Parliament. A mock Parliament therefore does something different from impeachment. It lets the parties put on one stage their complaint, stage a vote that the public can watch, and turn it into a rally cry for the following Sunday. Another report mentions an earlier plan to file a formal impeachment notice against Kumar, but the status of that plan is not clear from the available reports.

The two dates give the bloc a chance to show that its alliance can still act together. The bigger measure will be whether the 1 November rally comes close to its target of 10 lakh, and whether the demand reaches voters beyond the party workers who are expected to attend.

For the Election Commission, the issue has become one of public confidence. The Commission has defended the revision as a clean-up of the rolls, and the opposition's campaign means it will have to keep answering questions about the numbers.