New Delhi, Oct 27 The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Tuesday held a protest here demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, rollback of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and restoration of Jantar Mantar as a site for public protests.
CPI general secretary D Raja said the party had been campaigning across the country against the SIR and demanded that Jantar Mantar be reopened to allow people to express their views and raise their grievances.
“Our demand is very clear. Gyanesh Kumar should resign and Jantar Mantar should be restored for people’s protests and people to express themselves,” Raja said.
The protest took the form of a human chain from the CPI headquarters at Ajoy Bhawan to ITO, the party said in a statement.
The CPI said the participants expressed solidarity with citizens whose names had been deleted from electoral rolls during the SIR exercise and demanded an immediate rollback of the revision.
“Gyanesh Kumar has lost the confidence of the people, and his continued occupation of the office of Chief Election Commissioner is a grave threat to the credibility of our electoral democracy. He must resign,” the statement quoted Raja as saying.
The party also condemned the denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site and demanded its immediate reopening, arguing that citizens should be able to exercise their right to peaceful protest.
CPI leaders Amarjeet Kaur, P Sandosh Kumar, Rama Krushna Panda, Girish Sharma, Annie Raja, K Prekash Babu and K Ramakrishna participated in the protest, along with CPI MP PP Suneer and Delhi CPI secretary Dinesh Varshney.
Representatives of other organisations, including National Federation of Indian Women general secretary Nisha Sidhu, also joined the protest.
The CPI called on political parties, civil society organisations and citizens to intensify the campaign against the SIR and seek a transparent, independent and accountable Election Commission.
(PTI News)
