NEW DELHI: As opposition parties intensify their protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, INDIA bloc MPs may march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, according to sources.
The MPs have been asked to gather at the Central Hall at 3 pm on Friday and may march to Rashtrapati Bhavan from there, a leader said.
“There won’t be any lunch meeting like in the past two days,” the leader said.
The opposition parties have sought an appointment with President Droupadi Murmu and are awaiting a response from Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said on Thursday that the first request letter was sent on October 2. Subsequently, the Rashtrapati Bhavan office asked for the names of leaders who would be attending the meeting.
“Accordingly, we submitted the request again on October 5, along with the names, seeking an appointment on October 7, 8 or 9,” Venugopal said.
“So far, we have received no response. We will wait until Friday,” he said.
Sources said the names of leaders from 10 parties, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee, had been submitted for the appointment. Mamata Banerjee also reached Delhi on Thursday evening.
Last week, the INDIA bloc had finalised a joint action plan over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) row, including holding rallies and “Save Democracy” marches.
The opposition grouping made the announcement after a three-and-a-half-hour meeting of its leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and NCP(SP) MP Supriya Sule.
Briefing reporters, Kharge said the INDIA bloc had decided to seek an appointment with the President and make a representation against what he termed the “vote chori government”.
The opposition leaders’ decision to meet the President followed a report by The Indian Express, which said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the previous 10 months, mostly to decisions and orders related to the SIR of electoral rolls.