New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) The opposition offensive against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar picked up further pace on Wednesday as Rahul Gandhi led the INDIA bloc leaders’ street protests for the second consecutive day before being detained again along with many MPs by police amid dramatic scenes of resistance.
The defiant street showdowns by a “united” opposition bloc are likely to continue, with Gandhi claiming that they will not stop till CEC Kumar resigns.
While Akashvani Bhawan was the epicentre of Tuesday’s protest where Rahul Gandhi staged an over eight-hour sit-in along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other leaders till their forcible removal, the roundabout near the Shangri La hotel saw a confrontation between police and protesting leaders on Wednesday evening.
Police stopped the protesters midway while they were heading in buses for a surprise sit-in at Jantar Mantar after a lunch meeting at a South Indian vegetarian restaurant on Janpath, leading to the intense face-off.
Priyanka Gandhi and other women leaders lay flat on the road, clutching a copy of the Constitution, till being forcibly removed and taken into police buses amid loud sloganeering by opposition members, demanding the CEC’s resignation.
“We are not going to stop protesting till (Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar resigns. This is a fight to protect the most sacred thing in this country. There is nothing that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can do that will stop us,” Rahul Gandhi said.
There were scuffles between the police and protesting leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, before they were detained. They were released after around two hours, similar to what occurred on Tuesday.
“This is how they treat members of Parliament who are asking simply to meet the election commissioners. They are beating members of Parliament,” Priyanka Gandhi alleged as force was used to remove her from the spot.
“Their policemen have scratched me all over. They have thrown us to the ground and now we are not going to leave from here. Let them call their forces back. I will not move from here,” she added.
Gandhi and other opposition MPs, who were booked for forcibly entering Akashvani Bhawan on Tuesday, said any number of FIRs against them would not deter them from protesting till Kumar resigns.
“I have 45 FIRs against me. My target is that there should be 100 FIRs against me. Every FIR against me is a medal for me,” Gandhi said
The opposition protests that began on Tuesday with a march from Parliament to the Election Commission office are likely to continue on Thursday, with opposition sources saying they will further increase the momentum of their agitation against the CEC in the coming days.
Gandhi thanked all INDIA alliance MPs “standing firm in defence of our democracy – in Parliament, outside on the streets, and today near Jantar Mantar”.
“They can stop a march. They can refuse a meeting. But they cannot stop the will of our people. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Gyanesh Kumar and the entire system will be brought to justice,” Gandhi said in a post on X, after another resistance-packed day.
The lunch meeting hosted by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was seen by many as a show of solidarity and a cover for launching another street protest.
The MPs boarded the buses that were already parked near the restaurant after the meal.
However, MPs of the Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP were not present during the lunch or protest, with Congress downplaying their absence saying they could not attend because of prior commitments.
SP sources separately voiced concerns over a lack of consultation ahead of Gandhi’s surprise protests.
During the bus journey to the protest site, Congress leaders Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Imran Masood, Imran Pratapgarhi, Deepender Hooda and Srinivas B V climbed the roof of the bus in which Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka were travelling, and waved the tricolour, as the procession crawled from Janpath to Jantar Mantar, bringing the high security area to a halt for the second day.
However, the buses were stopped by a multi-layered security cordon at Ashoka Road, after travelling a kilometre, near the Shangri-La hotel, barely another kilometre away from the Jantar Mantar protest site.
MPs of the Congress, TMC, CPI-M, CPI, RJD, IUML and some other parties were among the protesters.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said all parties of the INDIA bloc had been invited, but the decision and communication came late on Tuesday night.
“Therefore, it was natural that representatives from some parties could not participate in it. Some media outlets are making unnecessary comments about this,” he posted on X.
Ramesh asserted that INDIA bloc constituents and other opposition parties remained united against “vote theft”, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and delimitation.
The protests came on a day the ruling BJP celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 25 years in public office, with a series of events across the country.
Attacking the opposition over the protests, BJP president Nitin Nabin accused the Congress and Rahul Gandhi of fighting for “infiltrators” and colluding with anti-social elements to create anarchy, while asserting that the people of India would not allow their agenda to succeed.
Condemning the Gandhi siblings, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Election Commission was ready for a meeting with them on Tuesday, but they did not agree to it because they wanted to exercise their “khandaani adhikaar (dynastic privilege)”, not “samvaidhanik adhikaar (constitutional right)”.
“The Constitution provides that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Chief Justice of India (CJI) or the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)) cannot be asked to even come to Parliament. But, they want the CEC to appear before their party MPs,” he said.
Trivedi said whatever the Congress’ first family did on the streets of Delhi today was very “unfortunate and condemnable”.
“With their behaviour, the Congress’ first family made it evident that embracing anarchy to grab media attention remains the only path available for the ‘dimaagi Naxal’ Congress, which has lost its mass base,” the BJP Rajya Sabha MP added. PTI ASK SBR SKC RT
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.