Patna, Sep 25 Congress workers staged a march to the Election Commission office here on Friday, demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s arrest amid a news report of disquiet within the poll panel over pan-India SIR, which was stopped midway by police with water cannons and barricades.
The RJD also protested across the state over the same issue separately and burnt effigies of Gyanesh Kumar.
During the around half-kilometre march, Congress workers raised slogans against Kumar, demanding his resignation and claiming that the Election Commission was “compromised”. The protest was part of the party’s nationwide agitation against the chief election commissioner.
Police personnel were deployed at strength in view of the march.
“The police used water cannons to prevent them from proceeding further,” said a senior police officer.
Talking to reporters, Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram said, “It is clear that the EC is compromised. It’s working on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Our party’s stand is clear: CEC Gyanesh Kumar must resign.”
The Congress alleged that Gen Z was being targeted for excluding them from the voters list, and pressed for its demand that the Chief Election Commissioner must resign immediately.
It took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by recalling that Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 reduced the minimum age for voting from 21 to 18 years, and said one PM gave Gen Z the vote, the other is determined to “snatch it away through underhand means”.
This came after an Indian Express report said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge, even as the national rollout of the SIR was under the supervision of the full commission.
Their objections covered the manner in which the statutory voter registration Form 6 was amended, the handling of additions and deletions from voter lists, and centralised control over the electoral roll database, according to the report.
Meanwhile, RJD workers also burnt effigies of Gyanesh Kumar at district headquarters across Bihar, including the state capital.
The protest in Patna was led by district RJD president Deenanath Singh Yadav at Income Tax Golumber, where hundreds of party leaders and workers gathered after marching from the party’s state office through Veerchand Patel Path.
RJD leader Ejaz Ahmad said the protests were held on the call of party president Lalu Prasad Yadav and national working president Tejashwi Yadav to “protect the Constitution and democracy”.
Party leaders demanded that elections in Bihar, West Bengal and three other states be cancelled and held afresh.
They alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was misused and accused the Election Commission of favouring the NDA.
Under fire over the red flags raised by two of its commissioners over the SIR process, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.
In a statement, the poll panel also said that not only the three commissioners, but every officer of the EC is fully authorised to give suggestions to the commission to improve the electoral system.
(PTI News)
