Rahul Gandhi invites Indian opposition leaders for strategy talks as push for CEC's resignation continues
The development comes a day after the chief justice of India declined a request for a meeting with the leader of the opposition, citing judicial propriety and saying the matter is sub judice.
Building on the major show of unity at yesterday's (12 October) march to the Indian Supreme Court by opposition parties, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has invited INDIA bloc lawmakers to a high tea at his residence in New Delhi this afternoon to discuss the strategy in the fight for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.
The high tea scheduled at 4pm at Gandhi's 5, Sunehri Bagh Road residence in central Delhi would take place a day after days of street protests over "vote theft" charges reached the Supreme Court's doorstep, with opposition stalwarts, along with activists and civil society members, holding a "March for Democracy" and filing a joint petition against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and alleged poll irregularities.
The high tea could be preceded by a joint press conference by the opposition leaders.
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Thousands of people accompanied Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, the Communist Party of India's (CPI) D Raja, CPI (Marxist) leader MA Baby, the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav, besides Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule at the march.
The development comes a day after the chief justice of India declined a request for a meeting with the leader of the opposition on the issue, citing judicial propriety and saying the matter is sub judice.
Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme Court's registry has flagged more than 10 defects in the petition filed by Gandhi and others over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the SIR of electoral rolls.
According to sources, the registry asked the filing lawyer yesterday to submit a clear copy of the ID card of Mallikarjun Kharge, one of the co-petitioners in the case.
The registry also flagged certain illegible or missing pages in the petition, sources said.
Besides, the registry also pointed out a shortfall of over Rs200 in court fee.
The petition filed by the opposition leaders in the top court has sought the setting up of an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and assisted by technical experts and other eminent citizens to conduct within a fixed time an independent audit of deletions and modifications made during SIR.
The SIR saw the exclusion of 130 million voters across India.
The Indian Election Commission maintains that SIR is aimed at cleansing the voters' lists by weeding out duplicate, dead and absentee voters that have hobbled the voting process over the decades.
