The Opposition plans to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan and meet President Droupadi Murmu on Friday to press for chief election commissioner ( CEC ) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, setting the stage for an escalation in an agitation marked by INDIA bloc MPs taking to the streets of Delhi , clashing with police and sparring with the government.
At Rajghat, the lawmakers paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi before staging a sit-in till around 6pm. “This is the greatest message we are giving. Mahatma Gandhi led the freedom fight for India.
The entire democracy is completely finished by Modi and Shah through Gyanesh Kumar…This is one of the most powerful agitations,” Congress general secretary (Organisation) and KC Venugopal said.
Modi and Shah are snatching away that freedom which great leaders like Gandhiji, Nehru ji, and Sardar Patel ji had won for us,” he said. Kharge echoed him. “We want to tell the country that the BJP government is snatching away our right to vote. Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar too accused the Congress of violating constitutional and democratic norms during its years in power.
From there, the MPs, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi , Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, boarded three buses at around 3:30pm to head to the Mahatma Gandhi memorial. The convoy was flanked by members of the Congress ’s Delhi unit, youth and students’ wings and security personnel as the buses made their way through a gridlocked Central Delhi, taking at least 1 hour and 10 minutes to cover the 3.5km distance.
INDIA bloc lawmakers plan to march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet the President over “mass disenfranchisement” through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and seek Kumar’s ouster, according to people aware of the matter. The Rashtrapati Bhavan, however, was yet to finalise the Opposition’s appointment with the President, who has been in Himachal Pradesh for three days now, the people said. “A request for an appointment with the President has been made,” she said before leaving for Delhi. Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien said the Opposition was united in its agitation. We will go to Rashtrapati Bhavan,” he said. He alleged that elections in the past were marked by booth capturing and violence and said such incidents had not occurred under the present government and EC. “Ask them (the Congress) about the time when they were in power—how they trampled upon the Constitution, how they overturned Supreme Court verdicts, and how they imprisoned and tortured those who voiced their demands in a democracy,” he said.
Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived in the Capital on Thursday evening to join the march. “…After two days of protest on the streets, we decided to have a peaceful dharna at Raj Ghat [on Thursday]… More parties will join tomorrow [Friday].
“If someone in this country does not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi-Vadra family, does that mean they have no human rights?
If someone in this country does not belong to their elitist culture, does that mean they do not feel pain when they are hurt?” he said. Yadav also accused the Congress of violating the law while claiming to defend the Constitution and said the alleged incidents were contrary to democratic norms.
