Opp take out protest march against SIR, ‘vote theft’; says EC can’t be ‘churao aayog’

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Stepping up attack, opposition MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Sharad Pawar, on Monday took out a protest march from Parliament House to the Election Commission office against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged “vote chori”, but were stopped midway by the police and briefly detained amid high drama.
The BJP, however, slammed the opposition parties for their protest, alleging that they are trying to create “anarchy and instability” in the country.
As opposition MPs, wearing white caps with red cross on the words ‘SIR’ and “vote chori”, started walking from Parliament’s Makar Dwar to the EC office while carrying placards and banners, they were stopped by the police, which had made elaborate arrangements to prevent them from proceeding forward by putting up barricades outside the PTI Building.
Many of the members of Parliament sat on the road and raised slogans while some women MPs, including saree-clad Mahua Moitra of TMC and the Congress’ Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani, climbed the barricades.
They were later whisked away by police in buses lined up along the road and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. All the MPs were later released.
TMC’s Moitra and Mitali Bag fainted during the protest and were helped by Rahul Gandhi.
“This fight is not political, but it is aimed at saving the Constitution. This fight is for ‘one man, one vote’ and we want a clean, pure voter list,” Gandhi said as he was being taken away in a bus after being detained.
“They cannot talk as the truth is before the entire nation….,” he said.
“This has not just happened in Bangalore, but in different constituencies across the country, and the Election Commission knows this. The EC knows that this data will explode. What it is trying to control and hide, we will bring it out, and it will explode. The EC knows this,” he said after his release.
Gandhi had on Thursday cited data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to claim that over 1 lakh votes were “stolen” in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka through five types of manipulation including duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, single-address voters.
The opposition is already up in arms over SIR in Bihar and has been protesting in both Houses of Parliament against it, alleging that the EC’s exercise is aimed at “disenfranchising voters” in the state ahead of the assembly elections due later this year.
Their demand for a discussion on SIR in both houses has been rejected with the government contending that no discussion on the functioning of a constitutional body can be taken up in Parliament.
Kharge, who was also detained outside the PTI building, said the protest against ‘vote chori’ and SIR is a fight to protect the people’s right to vote and a struggle to save democracy.In a post on X, he said, “BJP’s cowardly dictatorship will not work!”.
“The allies of the INDIA bloc will surely expose this BJP conspiracy to shred the Constitution,” Kharge said in his post in Hindi.
As the MPs were being whisked away, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the government was a “coward” as it did not allow them to take out their march and was “scared” of the opposition.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that democracy was being “assaulted and murdered” right outside Parliament, as opposition MPs were stopped from taking out their protest march to the Election Commission office.“Our demand from the EC was very clear, all opposition MPs are staging a peaceful march, at the end of the march, collectively, we wish to present a memorandum on SIR and other issues, we didn’t ask for a delegation…
“Now we are not allowed to even reach Nirvachan Sadan, we are stopped at the PTI building. Right in front of Parliament, democracy is being assaulted, democracy murdered. This is too clever, cheeky reply by the ECI,” he said.
“Chunav Aayog is Chunav Aayog, it cannot be ‘churao aayog’,” Ramesh told PTI.
Before embarking on the protest march, the members sang the national anthem at Parliament’s Makar Dwar.
As they were prevented from moving forward to the Election Commission headquarters, a short distance from Parliament House, the police made an announcement through a loudspeaker that only 30 people are allowed and they should send their representatives forward.
Prominent among those who participated in the march were NCP-SP’s Sharad Pawar, T R Baalu (DMK), Sanjay Raut (SS-UBT), Derek O’Brien (TMC), Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, as well as other MPs from opposition parties like the DMK, the RJD, the Left and AAP.
TMC MPs Mahua Moitra, Sagarika Ghose and Sushmita Dev, and Congress’ Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani climbed the barricades outside the PTI building and raised slogans against the EC when they were prevented from moving forward by the police.
SP’s Akhilesh Yadav also scaled the barricade in a bid to breach the police cordon and raised slogans against SIR.Three TMC MPs — Dola Sen, Pratima Mondal and Mamata Thakur — managed to reach the EC office and waited for a few hours there but were not allowed to enter.
A banner in front of the protesting MPs read “SIR+Vote Theft=Murder of Democracy”. Another banner carried by the protesting MPs read “SIR – Loktantra Par Vaar”. The MPs also carried “SIR par chuppi kyu” placards along with posters alleging collusion between the EC and the government.
Posting on social media, Gandhi later thanked MPs of INDIA bloc “for standing shoulder to shoulder and fighting with full strength in this movement against vote theft”.
“As I said, this fight is not political — it is for the protection of democracy, the Constitution, and the right to vote, and we will achieve this together,” he said.
Gandhi also said that the “campaign against vote theft has now become a massive public movement”.
“In the last 24 hours: ??1.5 million+ support certificates downloaded; 1 million+ missed calls received This is the true picture of India’s democracy today – suppressed voices of truth that are rising powerfully through our campaign,” he said.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan termed Gandhi’s allegation of “vote theft” a “lie” and said the Congress has been resorting to such tactics as it has no other issues to raise.
Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused Gandhi of acting “under pressure from anti-national forces”.
“He and the INDI alliance are defaming democracy, tearing it to shreds and tampering with the dignity of constitutional institutions,” the senior BJP leader said in a post on X.
Pradhan alleged that the opposition’s protest was a “well-thought-out strategy” to create instability in the country. “Congress and other opposition parties want to create anarchy in the country,” Pradhan said.Gandhi is speaking the language of “big forces” who want to destroy democracy in India, he charged. (PTI)