Opposition leaders at the INDIA bloc meeting on Wednesday discussed a coordinated political, legal and ground-level response to their concerns over the Election Commission, with several leaders calling for campaigns to be taken beyond political parties and into civil society, sources said.
The three-and-a-half-hour meeting covered the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleged irregularities in elections and concerns over electronic voting machines (EVMs), with leaders sharing their experiences and stressing the need for joint action.
The meeting also saw leaders discuss a joint legal challenge to the 2023 law governing the appointment of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners, sources said.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi stressed the need for collective action, telling the meeting that all opposition parties were "equal sufferers" and should focus on the collective fight, sources said.
"It is a privilege for us to have helped call this meeting," the Congress leader said, according to the sources.
He also told the leaders that they should "walk this path together" and that someday people would remember them as those who had stood together to save democracy.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge recounted his own electoral experience, telling the meeting how he had been "conned" in his own election despite having won several elections earlier, the sources said.
The Rajya Sabha LoP alleged that around 1.9 lakh voters had been removed from his constituency when he lost the Lok Sabha election from Gulbarga in 2019, his first electoral loss in decades of political career. The allegation could not be independently verified.
Leaders call for wider mobilisation
TMC chief Mamata Banerjee made a forceful intervention on the functioning of the Election Commission and the electoral process, questioning the manner in which the poll body was handling voter registration and the SIR exercise, the sources said.
The former West Bengal chief minister also referred to the situation in the state, raising the issue of violence, including incidents involving Jadavpur University, the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and educational institutions, the sources said.
"Together let us fight this to save democracy. I want to fight this as a worker," Banerjee said.
At another point, she attacked Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, referring to him as "Vanish Kumar".
Banerjee also said she had spoken to BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, as leaders discussed the need to keep parties outside the INDIA bloc engaged with the wider campaign on electoral issues, the sources said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal suggested that opposition parties jointly approach the Supreme Court challenging the 2023 law governing the appointment of the CEC and election commissioners, a proposal backed by Banerjee, the sources said.
Sibal told the meeting that the CEC enjoyed legal immunity under the law and argued that those responsible or involved in any wrongdoing could be proceeded against, an opposition leader said.
The need for the political campaign to be accompanied by mobilisation on the ground also figured prominently in the discussions.
CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby stressed the need to involve civil society. "This is a fight against the RSS. Don't forget that. Civil society will have to be involved," Baby said, according to the sources.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav spoke about the Bihar election, saying that he and Rahul Gandhi had received a good response while campaigning but were nevertheless "looted", drawing a parallel with the experience of the TMC in West Bengal.
CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya spoke about the need to bring young people into the political and electoral process and raised the issue of reducing the voting age to 16 years, from the present 18 years.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah warned that continued questions over the electoral process could undermine people's faith in elections. "The natural instinct in J&K is to get out and vote. Now the vote is getting looted. Now you're saying the process is flawed. People may lose faith in the process," Abdullah was quoted by an opposition leader who was present at the meeting.
Several leaders also spoke in favour of returning to paper ballots, which Kharge later announced at a joint press conference with other INDIA bloc leaders.
Another opposition leader said Rahul Gandhi cited an alleged incident involving EVMs in Kolkata and raised concerns about it. Around 4,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were gutted after a government building in Kolkata's Alipore area in June this year.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, who participated online, criticised the Election Commission and questioned the description of bypolls as being of lesser significance, the sources said.
Thackeray said the poll panel's role appeared to have become one of "looting elections and breaking parties", and said that after his party, the TMC was now facing a similar situation.
Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM chief Hemant Soren also joined the meeting online and said he was on board over the issue.
The issue of moving a fresh impeachment notice against the CEC, which had figured in discussions ahead of the meeting, did not come up during the deliberations. A senior opposition leader said the focus at present was on action on the ground.
The leaders instead discussed the need for a coordinated political and legal response to the Election Commission issue, with several of them stressing that the campaign needed to move beyond political parties and reach the ground and civil society, the sources added.
