The BJP will file a fresh petition for removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, this time before Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami.

The party had earlier filed a petition to the President, who appoints Election Commissioners, and then moved the Supreme Court seeking his removal, alleging bias and close association with the Congress.

“The BJP is encouraged by an affidavit filed in the SC by Gopalaswami which says the CEC has the powers to recommend the removal of an election commissioner. The party will, therefore, move the CEC with a fresh petition,” said party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The BJP will submit the petition to the CEC soon after the Parliament Session begins on August 10. Since Gopalaswami cannot take a decision in haste, it will keep Chawla in tenterhooks until the current CEC’s retirement on April 13, 2009. By the time Gopalswami retires, more than half of the next Parliament election will be over. Chawla, will have little more than a year as CEC, but then there will be no significant election in the country during that period. In case Chawla survives the petition, he will barely complete his tenure without harming the BJP, according to party sources.

“It’s a meaningful move,” Prasad said, reacting to the court proceedings. He said the NDA would submit its petition with the CEC under relevant constitutional and legal provisions.

In the fresh petition, a few more grounds of the impropriety of his holding a constitutional post will be raised, said a senior BJP leader.