New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien on Thursday questioned the “silence” over a notice submitted by the opposition leaders in Parliament demanding a motion to remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and accused the BJP of having a “tacit understanding” with the poll panel, calling it a “murder of democracy”.

In the notice, the opposition MPs, 130 in the Lok Sabha and 63 in the Rajya Sabha, have accused Kumar of “acting under the thumb of the executive”, besides blaming him for “mass disenfranchisement” through the SIR exercise.

It also raised questions about Kumar’s appointment as the chief election commissioner (CEC).

The notice was submitted in both Houses on March 12, but there has been no response from the secretariats so far.

“Notices by 193 MPs to remove CEC ignored. Now more election stunts,” O’Brien said in a post on X.

Talking to the media, the Trinamool MP said, “The opposition parties submitted a notice seeking a motion to remove CEC Gyanesh Kumar, but there has been no word on it so far.

“We have been saying that there is a tacit understanding between the BJP and the EC. Now it has become clear that this is match-fixing in broad daylight.” The Trinamool also cited some previous precedents.

In 1991, a motion for the removal of Justice V Ramaswami was admitted on March 12, and an inquiry committee was constituted the same day.

In 2009, Rajya Sabha MPs had submitted a notice seeking the removal of Justice Soumitra Sen on February 20, which was admitted on February 27.

Similarly, in 2009, a notice seeking the removal of Justice P D Dinakaran was submitted on December 14, and the motion was admitted on December 17.

In 2018, a notice seeking to remove CJI Dipak Misra was submitted in the Rajya Sabha on April 20, which then-Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected on April 23.

“The government is mocking Parliament. While it gives us lectures, the reality is that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have pushed a dagger through the heart of Parliament and murdered parliamentary democracy,” O’Brien said.

He also said that Prime Minsiter Modi and Home Minsiter Shah can take tutorials from West Bengal Chief Minsiter Mamata Banerjee on legislation to empower women.

“Let them bring whatever Bill they want; we will see when they come. The ‘supreme being’ will punish the ‘non-biological being’. They don’t need to lecture us on women’s reservation, we can give them a full tutorial,” O’Brien said.

According to sources, the Budget Session of Parliament will reconvene on April 16 after a brief recess to pass bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 so that the women’s reservation law can be implemented at the earliest.

The two Houses will reconvene for three days – April 16-18 – to take up the proposed legislations, they said.

The notice seeking Kumar’s removal lists seven charges against the CEC as grounds for his “proved misbehaviour”.

Among the charges, the opposition has accused the CEC of “failure to maintain independence and constitutional fidelity” and acting under the “thumb of the executive”.

The charges also include the process of Kumar’s appointment as the CEC, his “partisan” press conference on August 17, 2025, targeting Rahul Gandhi, “discriminatory treatment” of opposition and ruling party members, “obstruction” of investigations, refusal to provide “transparency tools”, and the execution of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise “in alignment with the ruling party’s political objectives”.

According to the notice, the CEC’s selection is the “subject of a pending constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court”.

It also referred to Kumar’s public ultimatum to Gandhi during a press conference last year, when, amid allegations of electoral fraud in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka during the 2024 general elections, the CEC asked Gandhi to either apologise or back his claims with a signed affidavit as required under electoral rules. PTI AO ARI