On Thursday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut announced that the opposition will move an impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in both houses of Parliament, accusing the CEC of acting as an "agent of the Central government" and running the poll body like a "mafia outfit." Raut said Kumar has lost the moral right to hold a constitutional office and demanded that he be booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Raut also condemned recent unilateral changes to Voter Registration Form 6, which now asks whether voters' grandfathers and great‑great‑grandparents are alive, questioning the motive behind probing deep ancestral roots. He retorted, "Do you even know who your own ancestors were?" and claimed the CEC operates on the orders of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, dubbing him the Home Minister’s "Chhota Shakeel" and urging MPs across parties to sign the impeachment petition.
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The move aligns with a broader opposition demand, voiced by leaders Uddhav Thackeray, Mamata Banerjee and Tejashwi Yadav, to scrap recent assembly elections in Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal and hold fresh polls. Thackeray earlier called for Kumar’s immediate arrest, labeling him the "kingpin of a gang" that destroys democracy, and praised whistle‑blower commissioners for exposing the CEC’s alleged arbitrariness.
