Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of 'hijacking' the electoral process through alleged 'vote chori', and said those responsible would be held accountable.
Addressing reporters at the protest site after an INDIA bloc march towards the Election Commission was stopped by the Delhi Police, Gandhi questioned why the poll panel was not meeting the nearly 300 Opposition MPs who had marched from Parliament to its office.
“Why is the CEC not meeting us? Why are they stopping us? We represent the people,” Gandhi said, questioning the police action against the protesters.
He alleged that Kumar had helped Modi, Shah and Bhagwat hijack elections and accused them of having destroyed democracy.
“What has been done to the country is treason. Be it the Prime Minister, Amit Shah, Mohan Bhagwat or Gyanesh Kumar, none of them will be spared,” Gandhi said.
He also questioned the deployment of police to stop the march. “Why is Delhi Police threatening us? We MPs represent the people,” he said.
The INDIA bloc MPs had marched from the Parliament complex towards the Election Commission headquarters, demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
The march was stopped near NITI Aayog, after which several Opposition leaders sat on the road in protest. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and some other leaders later attempted to enter the Akashvani Bhawan premises to reach the poll panel's office, while several Opposition leaders were detained.
The Opposition's protest comes amid its campaign against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and its allegations of irregularities in the exercise. The controversy intensified on Monday after the Supreme Court clarified that it had not approved any modification to Form 6, used for enrolment of new voters during the SIR exercise, and sought the Election Commission's response on the issue.
The ECI, however, has rejected allegations that Form 6 was illegally changed, saying the statutory form itself had not been altered and that an additional declaration was used as part of the SIR process. The Commission has also maintained that the Bihar SIR exercise was approved unanimously and was upheld by the Supreme Court in May.
The Supreme Court had on Monday issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on a plea challenging alleged decisions taken by the poll panel without the approval of its other two members.