In a show of strength, Opposition MPs, including Leaders of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, took out a protest march on Monday from Parliament House to the Election Commission against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged vote chori but were stopped midway by the police and detained amid high drama.
Police put up barricades on the Parliament street near RBI office on the way to prevent the MPs, protesting the voter roll revision in Bihar and the alleged poll rigging, from marching forward. Wearing white caps with a red cross on the words ‘SIR’ and “vote chori”, the protesting MPs started their march from Parliament’s Makar Dwar raising slogans against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar and vote chori while carrying placards and banners. Before embarking on the protest march, they sang the national anthem at Parliament’s Makar Dwar.
As the MPs were stopped, many of them sat on the road and raised slogans while some women MPs, including TMC’s Mahua Moitra and the Congress’ Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani, climbed the barricading and raised slogans against the EC.
TMC’s Moitra and Mitali Bag also fainted during the protest and were helped by Rahul Gandhi.
They were later whisked away by police in buses lined up along the road and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. “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,” Rahul 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.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also hit out at the EC for attacking Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his poll-rigging claims, saying that instead of providing answers, the poll panel is insisting on formalities like an oath and an affidavit. Participating in a protest march taken out by opposition MPs against the revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged “vote chori”, Tharoor said “what we want is answers, not attacks”.
Kharge, who was also detained from outside the PTI building, said the protest against ‘vote chori’ and SIR is a fight to protect people’s right to vote and a struggle to save democracy and the INDIA bloc will expose this BJP’s conspiracy. In a social media post, Rahul said, “BJP’s cowardly dictatorship will not work!”. “This is a fight to protect the people’s right to vote. This is a struggle to save democracy,” he said.
“The allies of the INDIA bloc will surely expose this BJP conspiracy to shred the Constitution,” Kharge said in his post in Hindi.
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, Left parties. AAP leaders, including Sanjay Singh, also took part in the protest march.
The opposition has been protesting in both the House of Parliament against the SIR, alleging that the EC’s exercise is aimed at “disenfranchising voters” in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections due later this year. They have been demanding a discussion on the issue in both Houses.