Several protesters, including leaders and activists, were detained by Delhi Police during demonstrations at Jantar Mantar on Friday demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Police erected barricades to stop protesters during marches towards the Election Commission office and detained them before taking them away in buses. Members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Indian Youth Congress and other groups were among those detained.
AISA president Neha Bora was also detained during the protest following a heated exchange with police, while CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and activist Yogendra Yadav were among others detained, according to reports. TMC MP Mahua Moitra also participated in the demonstration at Jantar Mantar.
Speaking at the protest, Moitra alleged that Kumar should resign and called for the SIR exercise to be stopped. “Gyanesh Kumar is a criminal and he needs to be prosecuted. He needs to resign,” she said, adding that the police were attempting to stop protesters.
The demonstrations came a day after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi demanded Kumar’s resignation, alleging that India’s elections were “fundamentally broken”. Gandhi accused the CEC of “vote chori, kanun chori, sanstha chori” and said questions had arisen over the functioning of the poll panel.
The protests also came after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) gave Kumar a fresh 24-hour ultimatum to resign. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said that if Kumar does not step down, the party will begin a nationwide protest from Mumbai on October 2 and subsequently take it to other cities.
The Election Commission has maintained that differences of opinion and internal scrutiny are part of its normal decision-making process and said its final decisions were unanimous.
