Chandigarh, Sep 28 (PTI) Congress’ Haryana unit on Monday held demonstrations and marches across the state, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and a comprehensive review of all election-related decisions taken during his tenure.
Senior Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the party’s Haryana affairs in-charge Sanjay Dutt, state party chief Rao Narender Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala, former Union minister Birender Singh, and MLAs and MPs took part in the protest.
Congress workers burnt an effigy of Kumar at several places, while the party’s leaders held protest marches near the deputy commissioner’s offices.
In Gurugram, Sanjay Dutt, Rao Narender Singh and senior leader Raj Babbar were among those who took part in the “vote chori protest march”.
State Congress chief Singh reiterated the party’s key demand: Kumar’s immediate resignation and arrest.
He said that a comprehensive review should be conducted of all election-related decisions taken during his tenure.
“The Nayab Singh Saini government, formed based on the public mandate obtained through vote chori, should immediately resign,” he said.
Seeking transparency, impartiality, and accountability in the electoral process, Singh said the Congress’ struggle to protect democracy and safeguard every voter’s right to vote will continue.
“This is not just a demonstration, but a clarion call against those officials who, cloaked in the guise of impartiality, have struck at the soul of the Constitution,” Rao Narender Singh said.
In Rohtak, former chief minister and Haryana Assembly’s Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda led the protest.
Hooda alleged that the CEC, in collusion with the BJP, rigged the electoral process across the country, including in Haryana.
Earlier, Hooda paid tribute to revolutionary freedom fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh on his birth anniversary and remembered his sacrifice.
Hooda said India attained independence thanks to martyrs like Bhagat Singh, asserting that “safeguarding this freedom is the primary duty of every Indian”.
Hooda further alleged that BJP’s vote theft has been exposed to the public. “After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the media has also brought this matter into the open. Under these circumstances, the Chief Election Commissioner has no option but to resign from his post,” he stated. Hooda further alleged that the CEC treated the Election Commission as his personal fiefdom to benefit the BJP.
On the 2024 Haryana election results, Hooda alleged that the BJP stole the public mandate with the help of the Election Commission.
The Congress on Saturday claimed that the Election Commission was in “damage control” mode after differences within the poll body came out following a media “expose”.
The party demanded that the ongoing SIR exercise be suspended immediately, claiming that it has “disenfranchised crores” of people.
The Congress also said that nothing short of CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation or prosecution will suffice.
The opposition party’s reaction came after the Election Commission on Saturday asserted that all SIR orders received unanimous consent from all three Commissioners and that the updates to Form 6 for voter enrolment were upheld by the Supreme Court, as it sought to address issues at the centre of a raging row over decision-making in the poll panel and concerns over exclusion of voters from the rolls. PTI SUN KSI
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