Congress MLAs protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar in J&K Assembly

Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Friday as Congress MLAs protested against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Soon after the House proceedings began, Congress members stood up, raised slogans against Kumar and displayed banners carrying messages such as “Protect the vote, protect the democracy” and “No democracy without fair elections”.

Congress MLAs Nizamuddin Bhat, Irfan Hafiz Lone and Iftikhar Ahmad raised slogans against the CEC. “This is an attack on democracy,” Lone said.

Bhat urged Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather to allow the Congress members to speak. However, the Speaker asked them to return to their seats and disallowed the protest.

As the Congress MLAs continued raising slogans and attempted to move into the well of the House, the Speaker warned them of action. The members also demanded Kumar's resignation and arrest.

The Speaker told the protesting MLAs that the Election Commission of India “is not in our control”.

The Congress members later returned to their seats, following which the Question Hour continued.

The protest comes amid opposition parties' criticism of the CEC following an Indian Express report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders they said were taken without their knowledge.

According to the report, their concerns included changes to statutory Form 6, the addition and deletion of names from electoral rolls and centralised control of the electoral-roll database.

The Election Commission has said that differing views and observations are a normal part of institutional deliberations and that its orders have full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures. It also said all three commissioners and other EC officials are authorised to offer suggestions to improve the electoral system.  (with inputs from PTI)