The lawn at 10, Rajaji Marg was arranged to look like a Parliament that does not exist anymore. Chairs were set out in the pattern of the old Central Hall. On the stage sat Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, in the chair. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stood up and moved a motion. Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi sat among the INDIA bloc leaders watching it happen, and the proceedings were streamed live on X.
This was the public impeachment of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner, held by the Opposition INDIA bloc in [New Delhi](https://auindia.in/news/india-invites-pakistan-sco-forum-delhi) on Saturday afternoon. It had been due on Friday, but rain waterlogged Kharge’s lawn and Rahul Gandhi announced a one-day postponement. Saturday’s version went ahead as planned, a day before the bloc’s march to Ramlila Maidan.
Nothing about the afternoon carried legal force, and the organisers did not pretend otherwise in their staging. The point was the theatre of it: a Parliament-style sitting, held outside Parliament, putting the head of the Election Commission on trial in public.
## The six charges read out against Kumar
Kharge, moving the symbolic motion, listed six charges against the CEC, according to The New Indian Express. The charges were: conspiring to steal elections; deleting **13.2 crore** voters from electoral rolls; rewriting Form 6 without Parliament’s approval; seizing electoral rolls through ECINET; shutting out the other two Election Commissioners from decision-making; and acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
In his speech, Kharge said the right to vote was the most fundamental thing in a democracy and was under serious threat, NDTV reported. He accused the ruling establishment of resorting to every conspiracy to retain power, from the alleged theft of MPs and the breaking of parties to the electoral bond scheme, before arriving at what he called vote theft.
## Why a public impeachment of CEC, and why now
The honest answer is that the formal route closed months ago. The Opposition, led by the Trinamool Congress, submitted impeachment motions in both Houses on March 12, with **130** MPs signing in the Lok Sabha and **63** in the Rajya Sabha, The Indian Express reported. In April, the presiding officers of both Houses rejected them, and no CEC has ever been removed in India.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor put the Opposition’s logic plainly on Saturday, telling reporters the bloc had no choice but to conduct the impeachment in public because its notices had not been admitted by either presiding officer. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera insisted the exercise was not a mock parliament but a public impeachment, a distinction the bloc clearly cares about.
There is a constitutional reason the distinction matters, and it cuts against the Opposition. Under Article 324(5) of the Constitution, a CEC can be removed only in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the [Supreme Court](https://auindia.in/news/supreme-court-banks-pay-digital-arrest-victims), The Indian Express explained. That bar is deliberately high, set to shield the poll panel from political pressure. Saturday’s sitting could pass a motion, but it cannot remove anyone.
## The other side of the argument
The BJP’s response was a jibe, not a rebuttal. The party said Rahul Gandhi was now sitting in a Parliament of his own choice, unable to win elections in reality, NDTV reported.
The Election Commission’s own position, meanwhile, has been stated in court rather than on a lawn. The poll panel told the Supreme Court that all SIR-related orders were issued with the unanimous approval of all three Election Commissioners, denying that Kumar acted alone, according to News24’s report of the Commission’s affidavit. The Supreme Court had earlier, on May 27, 2026, upheld the legality of the SIR exercise while insisting on safeguards for eligible voters, according to multiple reports of that judgment.
That is the gap Saturday’s event could not close. The Opposition says voters were deleted in bulk and the process was run as a one-man show. The Commission says its decisions were unanimous and lawful. Both sides now claim the institutions are on their side, which is why the fight has moved from courtrooms and Parliament to lawns and streets.
## Tomorrow, the march
The sitting was only the first half of the weekend. On Sunday, November 1, the INDIA bloc plans a march from the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction through Ajmeri Gate to Ramlila Maidan, starting at noon, where a rally will demand Kumar’s resignation. Rahul Gandhi announced the route in a post on X, calling it a march for the soul of the country and urging students to join.
One practical question hangs over it. Delhi Police sources told IANS that no permission had been sought for a march from Connaught Place, and prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita are in force across the New Delhi area. Traffic restrictions will run from 10 am to 5 pm on Sunday, Delhi Police said.
Saturday’s sitting will not remove a Chief Election Commissioner. Its real test comes tomorrow: does a symbolic verdict on a lawn put more people on the road to Ramlila Maidan than a press conference would have? If the crowd turns up, the Opposition will call it proof that the voter-roll fight has moved beyond Parliament. If it does not, the BJP’s jibe about a Parliament of one’s own choice will write its own headline.