Opposition MPs including Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi were on Monday detained by Delhi Police as they took out a march from Parliament House to the Election Commission headquarters to protest against the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
While Gandhi was being detained and taken away in a police van, he said, “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 and pure voter list.”
Among other detained MPs include, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Sharad Pawar.
The MPs were raising slogans and carrying placards accusing the Election Commission of India of collusion with the government in “vote chori”, wearing white caps marked with red cross over the words “SIR” and “vote chori.”
The march began at Parliament’s Makar Dwar with the national anthem but was halted at Transport Bhawan, where police had set up heavy barricading.
Meanwhile Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused authorities of using police to stop them reaching the Election Commission.
Yadav could be seen climbing the barricades and chanting slogans against SIR.
His actions were mirrored by other opposition leaders, who scaled the barriers as a symbolic rejection of what they see as state overreach.
The Opposition has been raising the demand for special discussion on SIR in the Parliament since the monsoon session has started.
The SIR began in Bihar in June, and the voters have time till September 1 to approach the authorities against wrongful deletion of names.
This process concluded by July 25. In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with “enumeration forms”, either by booth-level officers (BLO) or booth-level agents (BLA) nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity.
However, the protest has significance in the backdrop of recent press conference of LoP Rahul Gandhi where he alleged “vote chori” by the ruling government with the help of ECI.
Addressing the media, he showed “evidence” of fake voters and fake addresses in recent Assembly elections in states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh which went in the favour of the BJP. Results from Maharashtra confirmed the INDIA bloc’s suspicion of electoral malpractice, he said.
