NEW DELHI: Stepping up the campaign on ‘vote theft’ and the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Parliamentarians belonging to the INDIA bloc will hold a joint march to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in Delhi on Tuesday. However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday said it will not be part of the INDIA bloc’s October 6 protest, as the party is fighting its own battle continuously.
The decision to hold the protest march was taken at a meeting of the 19 opposition parties on September 30. After the meeting, the INDIA Bloc leaders announced that all its opposition MPs will march to the Election Commission on October 6 and the leaders would meet the President to highlight the issues related to alleged irregularities in the voter list revision.
The AAP and DMK did not take part in the meeting.
Confirming the march, Congress general secretary ( Organisation) K C Venugopal said on Monday that the Opposition MPs will hold the march on the issue of “Vote Chori” and recent revelations regarding the CEC on Tuesday. “Tomorrow, there will be a protest march from Parliament to the Election Commission of India at 10 30 am in the morning. Everything is prepared. We are asking the police not to stop us. Our aim is to have a peaceful demonstration to show the protest against the EC,” he said.
The Opposition parties are also up in the arm after the Supreme Court’s observation on Monday that it has not approved any modifications to Form 6 being used by the Election Commission during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in various states.
Form 6 is an application through which an eligible person seeks inclusion in the electoral roll for the first time.
In a post on X, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'brien said, “in 2023, a record 146 MPs were unilaterally suspended from Parliament, so BJP could bulldoze CEC Bill which replaced Chief Justice (with a Union Minister) from Selection Committee of CEC & ECs! Sweet irony. Tuesday, 146+ MPs march in protest from Parliament to EC. GK must go,” he wrote.
AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the protest against the alleged irregularities in the SIR of the electoral rolls is being held every day at different places.
He said the party is not even using its banner because it believes that this is a people’s movement and an issue concerning the people of the country, and that everyone should participate in it.
“The CJP’s protest is also being held, and different organisations are also holding protests. The Left is also protesting in different places. As far as tomorrow’s protest is concerned, it is the INDIA bloc’s protest. So, the Aam Aadmi Party is not part of it. We are fighting this battle in our own way,” he told the media at the Parliament House complex.
The call for the protest came amid a controversy over the alleged irregularities in the functioning of the Election Commission, following allegations by opposition parties about the poll panel’s handling of the SIR exercise.
The Election Commission has rejected suggestions of a split within the three-member panel and maintained that decisions relating to SIR were taken unanimously
An investigation by The Indian Express last month claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the SIR that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation, terming specific changes made to voter enrolment forms “unauthorised” and “illegal”.
The September 30 meeting was attended by top party leaders — Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, besides TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and Left leaders.
Some opposition leaders, including Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM chief Hemant Soren, participated in the meeting virtually.
