GUWAHATI, SEP 24 (PTI): With the rest of the country, the Congress units of several Northeast states organized protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after a report from Indian Express exposed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected at least 14 times over 10 months to SIR-related decisions, including voter deletions and electoral roll data.
ASSAM: Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi and several senior party leaders were detained on Friday while trying to break through police barricades during a protest demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, police said.
The Congress, led by Gogoi, had taken out a march from its state headquarters, Rajiv Bhawan, and planned to proceed towards the Chief Electoral Officer’s office to burn an effigy of the CEC. Police had put up barricades near Rajiv Bhawan, which the protesting leaders, including Gogoi, attempted to cross, following which they were detained.
In a video released by the Congress, Gogoi said the party had taken a “democratic step” to stage the protest and planned to go to the CEO’s office to “express our concern against the attack on Indian democracy”, but police stopped and detained us.
“If they (the BJP) think that by detaining us they can silence us, then they are mistaken. It appears that the BJP is now scared,” he said.
“The Congress will continue to fight to save Indian democracy. We will remove the BJP and save the nation,” Gogoi said.
The detained Congress leaders, who were taken by bus to the 4th Assam Police Battalion, were heard shouting slogans against the BJP and the CEC, including ‘BJP go back’ and ‘arrest Gyanesh Kumar’. Congress spokesperson Bedabrata Bora alleged that the leaders were “forcefully arrested” and claimed that “this is yet another threat to democracy”.
“The brutality displayed by the police during the demonstration to burn an effigy of Kumar is not only deplorable but also concrete proof of the current government’s miserable failure on all fronts,’’ he said.
Besides Gogoi, those detained included AICC secretary Manoj Chauhan, Seva Dal president Deep Bayan and APCC general secretary Udit Bhanu Das, along with several others.
An Indian Express report on Wednesday claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected at least 14 times over 10 months to SIR-related decisions, including voter deletions and electoral roll data.
The EC has, however, said decisions relating to SIR were taken unanimously with the approval of all three commissioners.
The Congress emphasised that the revelations completely vindicate the concerns repeatedly voiced by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and the party, alleging that the electoral machinery was being “captured and manipulated” to provide an “unfair advantage” to the ruling BJP.
TRIPURA: Hundreds of Congress leaders, workers and supporters on Friday burnt an effigy of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his arrest over his alleged role in “destroying democracy” in the name of the SIR of electoral rolls.
The protest march, attended by Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Asish Kumar Saha and senior Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman, started from the party headquarters and passed through several important locations in the city.
Holding banners that read ‘CEC Gyanesh Kumar should be arrested immediately for ‘vote chori’, Congress workers were heard chanting “Vote chor gaddi chhod” amid tight security.
“Our leader Rahul Gandhi has been raising the issue of vote chori for the past two-and-a-half years, but some people mocked it. Now it is crystal clear that elections were rigged in states like West Bengal, Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh with the help of Gyanesh Kumar,” Roy Barman told reporters. Blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the issue, he alleged that the CEC did his best to ensure a favourable mandate for the BJP.
Issuing a warning to Kumar, Roy Barman said “very cruel justice” was waiting for the CEC for allegedly destroying the foundation of the country’s democracy by manipulating electoral rolls.
Roy Barman added that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is scheduled to meet on September 29 in Delhi to finalise the party’s strategy following the alleged exposure involving the CEC and the Modi government. “We will launch a massive movement in Tripura to expose the CEC’s anti-national activities. Kumar should be arrested immediately on sedition charges because he has betrayed the people of India,” he said.
MANIPUR: Manipur Congress members staged a protest here on Friday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar following a newspaper report that claimed disquiet within the poll panel over the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
The protesters burnt effigies of Kumar in front of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer at Lamphel and raised slogans. Police personnel fired a few tear gas shells to disperse the agitators. They also called for Kumar’s arrest as well as an independent review of decisions and electoral-roll changes made during his tenure. “The protest reflects the Congress’ demand for accountability, transparency and protection of the integrity of India’s electoral process,” an agitator said, adding the party stands firmly for the right of every citizen to vote freely and for every vote to be counted fairly. The Congress has alleged that Gen Z was being targeted for exclusion and pressed for its demand that Chief Election Commissioner Kumar 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.
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.
MEGHALAYA: Congress workers on Friday burnt an effigy of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Shillong, demanding his removal and arrest.
A procession, led by state Congress president Vincent H Pala, began at Congress Bhavan and culminated near the Additional Secretariat, where party workers burnt the effigy.
Addressing the protesters, Pala alleged that Kumar had “manipulated the system” and ignored objections raised by the two other Election Commissioners over the past 10 months.
“In the last 10 months, 14 objections have been raised by the two other election commissioners, but he bulldozed all these with the help of the BJP,” Pala alleged.
“The BJP is manipulating the mandate of the public. In Haryana, Congress was supposed to win, in Maharashtra, Congress was supposed to win, and in West Bengal, there was a huge manipulation with deletion of voters from the electoral rolls,” he alleged.
MIZORAM: The Mizoram Congress on Friday staged a march in Aizawl demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging irregularities in the functioning of the EC.
Congress workers and office-bearers marched from Vanapa Hall to the State Election Commission office, where Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Lal Thanzara addressed the gathering. He alleged that the EC had ignored concerns raised by Rahul Gandhi for the past three years and that the media had now brought alleged irregularities in its functioning to public attention. Thanzara also alleged that Kumar had ignored 14 suggestions made by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over the past 10 months.
and accused the CEC of conducting the affairs of the poll panel according to his own wishes.
He further alleged that large numbers of voters were being removed from electoral rolls and claimed that the BJP’s electoral victories in various states were linked to alleged “vote theft”.
With elections in several states due in the near future, the state Congress president expressed concern over the current electoral rolls, alleging that their use could give the BJP an unfair advantage.