New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are learnt to have agreed to sign a proposed notice being prepared by the opposition seeking removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The move is significant as both parties had distanced themselves from the INDIA bloc.
The development comes amid stepped-up opposition coordination against Kumar over the functioning of the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] general secretary MA Baby met AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday, while Trinamool Congress' (TMC's) Derek O'Brien met AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Tuesday morning as opposition leaders worked on securing wider support for the fresh notice.
Earlier, DMK leader Kanimozhi also met TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on September 17.
Both AAP and DMK have agreed to back opposition's proposed notice in Parliament to move a motion seeking CEC Kumar's removal, according to sources.
AAP formally walked out of the INDIA bloc in July 2025, after its ties with the Congress had deteriorated over electoral contests in Delhi and Punjab.
The two parties had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat, but continued to be rivals in Punjab. Their differences deepened after they fought separately in the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls and the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections.
The DMK's ties with the Congress broke down after the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, when the Congress extended support to actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) after the election. The DMK described the move as a betrayal and subsequently stayed away from the INDIA bloc meeting in June. DMK leaders have said the party remains part of the opposition but is no longer part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc.
Despite distancing themselves from the bloc, both AAP and DMK have continued to coordinate with opposition parties on specific issues, particularly the Election Commission and SIR. Both had signed a June 28 letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) raising concerns over the EC's functioning and the SIR exercise.
Opposition parties are preparing to submit a fresh notice in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to move a motion for the removal of CEC Kumar in the next few days, sources have said earlier.
This will be the third attempt by the opposition to move a motion for Kumar's removal.
The notice is being drafted and will be vetted by legal experts before being submitted in both Houses of Parliament.
In March, notices seeking Kumar's removal were submitted in both Houses of Parliament, and both notices were rejected by the Chair. The opposition subsequently submitted a fresh notice in the Rajya Sabha in April, containing nine grounds for Kumar's removal.
The Aam Aadmi Party has announced that it will not attend the INDIA bloc meeting to be convened on Wednesday over issues concerning the Election Commission and the CEC. During the meeting, opposition leaders are likely to deliberate on a proposed nationwide protest over allegations of electoral irregularities.
In conversation with ANI, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said that the party would not attend the INDIA Bloc’s meeting but rather support an impeachment motion against CEC Gyanesh Kumar in Parliament.
Singh said, “The Aam Aadmi Party has already made it clear that we are not part of the INDIA alliance, so there is no point in attending such a meeting.”Responding to the reports that Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav will also maintain distance from the opposition meeting, Sanjay Singh accused the Congress of “troubling” Yadav and SP in Uttar Pradesh.
“We are seeing how Congress has been troubling the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh,” the AAP leader said.
The fresh mobilisation followed a report in The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over a 10-month period to decisions and procedures related to the SIR exercise and other matters.
The report triggered a fresh political controversy, with opposition parties renewing their demand for Kumar's removal.
The Election Commission subsequently said that its decisions, including those relating to the SIR, had been taken unanimously, and maintained that differing views and observations were part of institutional deliberations.
(With inputs from PTI & ANI)