Lucknow, Sep 25 Congress workers, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, clashed with police here on Friday after they were stopped from marching towards the *UP Chief Electoral Officer’s office in Hazratganj.
According to the Uttar Pradesh Congress, the march began from the Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters at Nehru Bhawan and was headed towards the chief electoral officer’s office at Janpath Market in Hazratganj.
Rai alleged that Kumar had played a role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in Varanasi and demanded that the election be cancelled.
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.
The protesters were stopped near the Sunni Waqf Board office at Mall Avenue, where police had put up barricades.
The Congress workers, who were demanding Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the electoral process, climbed the barricades and raised slogans, following which a scuffle broke out between them and the police.
The police subsequently detained Rai, Misra and hundreds of protesting Congress workers and took them in buses to Eco Garden- a protest site in the state capital.
The party said several senior leaders, including national secretaries, MPs and former state presidents, were among those detained. The protesters were released later in the evening.
The protesters continued their agitation amid rain, with women workers carrying posters bearing the slogan “Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod”.
Rai alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission had colluded in “vote theft” and demanded Kumar’s resignation.
“Our leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said through a series of press conferences that the BJP and the Election Commission are together committing theft across the country,” Rai said.
He claimed that he was leading in seven rounds during the last Lok Sabha elections against Prime Minister Narendra Modi but subsequently lost, and questioned why the Election Commission’s website, which showed round-wise results, was allegedly shut down.
Gautam also demanded Kumar’s resignation and action against him, alleging that “electoral wrongdoing” by the Election Commission is against the country.
Gautam alleged that Kumar had turned the Election Commission into the BJP’s “B team” and demanded his immediate resignation and action against him. Rai alleged irregularities in the electoral rolls, including the addition of “fake voters”, deletion of valid voters’ and “improper changes” through Form 6, which is used for inclusion of names of new voters. He said the Congress would continue its agitation until Kumar was removed from the post.
Misra said the allegations of “vote theft” had been raised in the Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal elections. “Rahul ji has been raising this issue continuously and with evidence. Today that issue has come before the people,” she said.
She said the issue was not about any one person or party but about protecting the Constitution and the right to vote of the country’s people.
(PTI News)
