NEW DELHI: The INDIA bloc on Monday announced plans to march from Parliament to Election Commission's office, drawing a response from Delhi Police, who said no permission had been sought for the protest.
Police officials clarified that no formal request or application had been received for the demonstration.
The opposition coalition had said the march was to protest the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and alleged “voter fraud” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On Sunday, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the INDIA bloc MPs had marched from Parliament to the Election Commission’s office to register their protest. At a press conference, he alleged, “All the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were filling out ‘fake forms’ in one room.”
Singh further stated, “ Rahul Gandhi put forward such facts that no one could deny... The name of one person appeared at multiple locations, including polling booths... Rahul Gandhi’s demand was for electronic data of the voter list, which could be scanned using software to determine how many votes were cast on a single EPIC number... The reason for the SIR happening in Bihar was questioned. It had been thoroughly tested in 2003, which took 2 years in Bihar, but this time they wanted to do it in 1 month...”
He added, “All the BLOs were filling out fake forms in one room. The Election Commission said that so many people had died, but their list was not provided... And MPs of the entire INDIA alliance, from all parties except the BJP and NDA alliance MPs, had marched from the Parliament to the Election Commission’s office...”
The announcement of the march came days after Rahul Gandhi’s press briefing in which he made serious allegations against the poll body.
On August 1, Union minister Kiren Rijiju responded, saying the government was open to discussions but not on the SIR. “I want to clarify that the government is ready to hold discussions on any issue as per the rules. There cannot be a discussion on SIR because it is a process undertaken by a Constitutional body, and it is not happening for the first time...” he told ANI.
Police officials clarified that no formal request or application had been received for the demonstration.
The opposition coalition had said the march was to protest the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and alleged “voter fraud” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On Sunday, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the INDIA bloc MPs had marched from Parliament to the Election Commission’s office to register their protest. At a press conference, he alleged, “All the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were filling out ‘fake forms’ in one room.”
Singh further stated, “ Rahul Gandhi put forward such facts that no one could deny... The name of one person appeared at multiple locations, including polling booths... Rahul Gandhi’s demand was for electronic data of the voter list, which could be scanned using software to determine how many votes were cast on a single EPIC number... The reason for the SIR happening in Bihar was questioned. It had been thoroughly tested in 2003, which took 2 years in Bihar, but this time they wanted to do it in 1 month...”
He added, “All the BLOs were filling out fake forms in one room. The Election Commission said that so many people had died, but their list was not provided... And MPs of the entire INDIA alliance, from all parties except the BJP and NDA alliance MPs, had marched from the Parliament to the Election Commission’s office...”
The announcement of the march came days after Rahul Gandhi’s press briefing in which he made serious allegations against the poll body.
On August 1, Union minister Kiren Rijiju responded, saying the government was open to discussions but not on the SIR. “I want to clarify that the government is ready to hold discussions on any issue as per the rules. There cannot be a discussion on SIR because it is a process undertaken by a Constitutional body, and it is not happening for the first time...” he told ANI.
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