Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Sep 24: The Congress on Thursday directed its state units to organise protest marches to their respective State Election Commission offices on September 25, demanding the immediate arrest and removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and an independent review of decisions and changes made to electoral rolls under his tenure.
As the second phase of the protest, all District Congress Committees (DCCs) will organise similar marches to their respective District Collectorates on September 28, Congress general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said.
Venugopal alleged that Kumar was spearheading a "massive vote chori" exercise under the control of the BJP and said the Congress would continue its protests until its demands were met.
"Since day one, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been exposing the 'massive vote chori' exercise being spearheaded by the 'BJP-controlled CEC Mr. Gyanesh Kumar'," Venugopal said.
He alleged that developments reported on Wednesday had brought Kumar's alleged "treason" into the open and accused him of committing what he termed "anti-national acts against our democracy".
"The Congress will be taking to the streets on this burning issue, and all Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) have been instructed to organise massive protest marches to their respective State Election Commission Offices tomorrow, 25th September, firmly demanding his immediate arrest, his removal from office, and a comprehensive, independent review of all decisions and electoral roll changes made under him," Venugopal said.
"Gyanesh must go, and all his decisions must be reversed. Our protests will relentlessly go on until he is removed, sent to jail and all our demands are met," he added.
The Congress announcement came a day after The Indian Express reported that questions had repeatedly been raised within the three-member Election Commission over decisions relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
According to the report, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders that they said were issued without their knowledge or approval. On one day alone, they reportedly raised objections four times.
The reported objections covered issues including changes to Form 6 for new voter registration, access to electoral-roll databases, deletion and restoration of names and the filing of appeals in West Bengal. The two Commissioners also reportedly raised concerns over what they described as the gradual centralisation of the electoral-roll database.
The report also highlighted the case of 97 voters in Goa who were reportedly found eligible for inclusion in the final electoral roll by local EROs but could not be restored because the required rollback facility was not enabled in the centralised software before the final roll was published.
The national rollout of the SIR has been under the supervision of all three Election Commissioners, according to the report.
The Election Commission, however, has rejected suggestions of an internal split and maintained that differences of opinion and suggestions are normal within a multi-member constitutional body. It said all decisions taken by the Commission, including those relating to the SIR, were unanimous.
The Congress has sought an independent review of all decisions and electoral-roll changes made under Kumar as part of its demands, while announcing a two-stage nationwide protest beginning on Friday.