NEW DELHI: The INDIA bloc of opposition parties will be leading a delegation to meet President Droupadi Murmu, at 8pm today to brief her and submit a representation over the functioning of the Election Commission under CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR process.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee, RJD national working president Tejashwi Yadav and general secretaries MA Baby (CPM) and D Raja (CPI) will be part of an over 10-member delegation of top leaders representing the various INDIA parties, sources said.It is learnt that the INDIA party MPs will be gathering at Central Hall of Parliament at 5pm where they will decide if they will march to Rashtrapati Bhawan for the 8 pm meeting.On the plan of INDIA parties to meet at Parliament ahead of the meeting with the President, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien said, “the Central hall is an apt place to meet as this is where the Constitution was born.”This is day four of the ongoing agitation by the INDIA bloc where they resorted to street protests on the first two days and chose to visit Rajghat to pay their respects to Mahatma Gandhi in silence on Thursday.The decision to write to the President was taken at the INDIA bloc meeting on Sept 30. After that, the bloc wrote seeking time from the President for any day between October 7-9. It was conveyed by the President’s secretariat that it would need to restrict their contingent of leaders to not more than 10. The INDIA bloc wrote back agreeing to the request.With the President agreeing to meet the Bloc leaders at 8pm today, the top leaders of the bloc were busy finalising the delegation to ensure the parties in the bloc are represented well.According to sources, Samajwadi Party Supremo Akhilesh Yadav is unlikely to be part of the delegation as he is caught up with unavoidable engagements, including his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s death anniversary on Saturday.However, SP is expected to be sending a representative for the meeting with the President, sources said. Whether Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP(SP) will be sending representatives is still not known.Meanwhile, senior leaders in the bloc reiterated that the attempt was to bring together as many non NDA parties on the EC issue even if they are not part of the INDIA bloc.Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Rajya Sabha MPs Manas Mangaraj and Sulata Deo, along with former MP Muzibulla Khan had joined the INDIA bloc protest on October 6.
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On Friday, BRS working President KT Rama Rao (KTR) in a post on X said, “Nothing is greater than the Constitution of India. And no Indian citizen can be stripped of their right to vote.Gyanesh Kumar must go! No individual is above the institution. We the BRS party reiterate our demand that the Supreme Court needs to take suo moto cognisance of the irregularities in the SIR process and order an independent investigation headed by a sitting judge.”Reflecting the opposition’s mood to draw in more and more support on the EC issue, TMC’s Derek O’ Brien shared KTR’s post saying, “Bravo”.
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