Chennai, Sep 24 (PTI) TNCC president Manickam Tagore on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of acting as an “agent” of the BJP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and demanded his immediate resignation and arrest.
Tagore announced a statewide agitation, beginning with a protest near the Chennai District Collectorate on Friday and followed by demonstrations at all district headquarters.
The protests are part of a broader nationwide campaign called by the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Addressing reporters, Tagore referred to Kumar’s bureaucratic career to allege that he had close ties with the ruling party.
He claimed Kumar had played a key role in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill and later served as Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation under Amit Shah before being appointed CEC.
Tagore criticised the 2023 law governing the appointment of the CEC and Election Commissioners, which replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Union Cabinet minister on the selection committee.
He alleged that the legislation was passed during the Winter Session amid the suspension of 146 opposition MPs and was intended to protect pliant officials from legal consequences.
Tagore also claimed that recent election results in Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar validated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s repeated warnings about institutional subversion and “vote theft”.
While noting that booth-level vigilance by the alliance had protected voters in Tamil Nadu, he alleged that specific communities had faced widespread and targeted disenfranchisement in states such as Bihar and West Bengal. PTI JR SSK
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