New Delhi: India witnessed a series of protest on Friday after Congress, left parties and student outfits marched to the streets seeking the resignation and arrest of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Congress also accused the Election Commission of carrying out an "unprecedented attack" on voter equality by allegedly creating a specific 'Mark VIP' feature in the BLO application and urged Kumar to either turn "approver" or face trial.
Several senior leaders, including party's deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, and workers were detained as police used barricades to stop them from marching towards the state election commission offices in various state capitals.
The protests come in the wake of The Indian Express report that questions were repeatedly raised on issues related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls within the three-member Election Commission (EC) by two of the three commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
The national rollout of SIR has been under the supervision of all three commissioners. But Sandhu and Joshi have formally objected, on record, at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions taken and orders issued, they say, without their knowledge, according to the report in the English daily.
In Delhi, Congress leaders and workers staged a protest against Kumar, demanding his resignation and an independent audit of SIR of electoral rolls in the city.
Several party workers gathered at the Delhi Congress office on Rouse Avenue and marched towards the BJP headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg before proceeding to the Election Commission office at Nirvachan Sadan.
Also, wearing masks bearing Kumar's face and with their hands bound in chains, Indian Youth Congress workers in Delhi protested against the EC, demanding Kumar's resignation.
The All India Students' Association (AISA) Delhi unit, along with civil society members, organised the protest, with demonstrators raising slogans against the Election Commission and demanding Kumar's arrest.
CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav and AISA president Neha were among those detained, organisers said. AISA said police later took Neha to Kanjhawala police station.
In a video message from the police station, Neha alleged that police detained students for demanding accountability from the Election Commission and said the protests would continue.
"The Constitution gives us the right to democratic dissent, and we had gone to protest at Jantar Mantar. Even though we were detained today, we will come again tomorrow; we will come the day after. The streets of this country will remain active until Kumar is jailed, the SIR is halted, and all those voters whose votes have been illegally and unconstitutionally deleted have their right to vote restored through the SIR," Neha said.
“Resign and face trial,” Congress tells Gyanesh Kumar
Addressing a press conference here, Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said all decisions taken by Kumar including SIR are "null and void".
"We are sure the Supreme Court is watching what is happening and will take the right steps at the right time," he said.
"We want to say to Gyanesh Kumar: it's done bro. Heed Rahul Gandhi's advice -- resign and turn approver," Khera said, adding that if Kumar does not do so, he should be ready to face trial.
Congress general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal said, "Gyanesh will go, it's a matter of time. And then Congress will make it happen."
The protests held by our leaders and workers across the country demanding his removal are just the beginning, he said.
"There will be a massive outpouring of the defenders of democracy, against the deshdrohis who are out to destroy it," Venugopal said.
Every Indian who is even slightly concerned about saving our democracy should step out and mount unbelievable pressure on this regime and its puppets to fix accountability for this daylight robbery of our vote, and to ensure those guilty are severely punished for destroying our democracy, he said.
The protesters raised slogans and displayed posters and banners demanding accountability from Kumar as they marched from the IYC office on Raisina Road towards the EC headquarters.
In Guwahati, Assam Congress president Gogoi and several senior party leaders were detained while trying to break through police barricades during a protest demanding the removal of Kumar.
Police had put up barricades near Rajiv Bhawan, which the protesting leaders, including Gogoi, attempted to cross, following which they were detained.
Congress workers clashed with police in Lucknow after they were stopped from marching towards the Uttar Pradesh assembly.
The protesters, led by Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai, state in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam and Congress Legislature Party leader Aaradhan Misra, were stopped by police amid heavy rain.
Rai alleged that Kumar had played a role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's victory in Varanasi and demanded that the election be cancelled.
In Jammu, scores of Congress workers and leaders were detained.
Similar incidents were reported from Punjab, Odisha, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Keralam and Tamil Nadu.
Odisha Congress attempted to gherao the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Bhubaneswar. Several Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee leaders and workers, led by state president Bhakta Charan Das, held a protest march from the additional district magistrate's office to the CEO's office, carrying posters and banners. Police detained several Congress leaders and workers after they were stopped from proceeding towards the CEO's office.
As part of the party's offensive over the issue, all district Congress committees will organise similar massive protest marches to their respective district collectorates on September 28.
Communist Party of India (CPI) National Council Secretary Binoy Viswam on Friday alleged that the Election Commission is acting as an "instrument of the BJP", stating that the call for a protest is their duty."It is the duty of the democratic parties to call for a protest because the Election Commission is behaving as a tool in the hands of the BJP governments… Its primary task is to maintain and make sure that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner. To control it, to supervise it, is their duty, but they are forgetting that duty… That's why the left parties have made a call for a protest," Viswam told reporters.His remarks came after five Left parties issued a joint statement on Wednesday demanding Kumar's removal and calling for protests from September 26 to October 2, dates chosen to coincide with Bhagat Singh's birth anniversary on September 28 and Mahatma Gandhi's on October 2.The joint statement, signed by leaders of CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)-Liberation, AIFB and RSP, cited an Indian Express report on objections raised by two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, saying it raised "fundamental questions" about the functioning of the EC under Kumar and amounted to "an indictment of the office of the CEC, which stands compromised."
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)