NEW DELHI: The DMK and YSRCP’s demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s removal may hinder the Centre’s renewed push to pass the constitutional amendment on delimitation linking women’s reservation, raising uncertainty over support from the two regional parties crucial to the NDA’s efforts to secure the required two-thirds majority.
There is speculation that the BJP had approached the DMK, which has 22 Lok Sabha MPs, for support on delimitation. The YSRCP, meanwhile, has backed several contentious government Bills, including the legislation on appointing election commissioners, despite remaining outside the NDA. However, both parties have now strongly backed the demand to remove the CEC, though their positions on a fresh delimitation proposal remain unclear.
The developments come amid speculation that the government could convene a special sitting of Parliament later this month to take up legislation on delimitation and women’s reservation. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an all-party meeting on any revised proposals and cautioning against rushing through constitutional changes with far-reaching impact. Flagging the "unprecedented" delay in proroguing the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Kharge said it has already been 64 days since the Monsoon Session was adjourned sine die on August 13.
In a scathing attack, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday said that he regretted extending support to the law related to the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) passed by Parliament in 2023.
“Both the State Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioners should not be nominated by the ruling parties. In the past we have supported the Union government’s mechanism to make appointments by the ruling party. But we regret it today. We regret committing that mistake. Because an examiner cannot be appointed by a student,” he told a press conference.
The party had backed the election commissioners’ appointment Bill in 2023, which Parliament passed amid the suspension of more than 100 Opposition MPs.
The DMK, meanwhile, has stepped up its campaign against Kumar at its parliamentary party meeting on Saturday. The meeting, chaired by party president M K Stalin, demanded his immediate removal and an inquiry into his decisions concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The party said its MPs would submit a memorandum to the President seeking to scrap SIR, return to ballot papers, and fully count Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips. Alleging that the revision had excluded genuine voters, it accused the Election Commission of acting in a partisan manner.
While backing the ongoing youth and student protests over alleged electoral irregularities, the party also accused the Congress and the TVK of political opportunism and double standards.
While the government failed to muster the required two-thirds majority to clear the bill on April 17, sources said that there is a proposal to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50 percent to address the concerns of southern states.
The draft is being readied with the concerns of the southern states in mind that a population-based delimitation exercise would shrink their political power in the Lok Sabha.
Under the government’s plan, Lok Sabha seats will increase to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalize” the women’s quota law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the last published 2011 census.
