Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre, CEC over ECI row, says 'Modi-Shah hijacked country'

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted the Centre and demanded that the Election Commissioners meet opposition leaders to address their questions over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Opposition MPs marched towards Nirvachan Sadan but were stopped by barricades. Speaking to reporters at Akashvani Bhavan, Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of “hijacking” the country and undermining the electoral process.

He said, “300 opposition MPs were removed from there, so I came here and sat. We just want to meet Gyanesh Kumar and the other election commissioners. We are all opposition MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and we just want to talk to them. Don’t know why the Election Commission does not want to talk to us. Crores of people have voted for us. We just want to ask questions, but they don’t want to answer.”

Gandhi also targeted the Centre and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, saying, “The democracy is finished. Narendra Modi ji, Amit Shah, Mohan Bhagwat and Gyanesh Kumar have finished the vote. The nation has understood. In a way, Narendra Modi ji and Amit Shah ji have hijacked the country. We are trying to save the constitution… I am asking the police, if you want to remove me from here, just tell me where in the country I can sit.”

Earlier, Gandhi alleged, "I want to tell the whole country that the police are removing the media personnel from here.”

CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar said opposition MPs were stopped from proceeding further amid heavy security deployment. He also said parties outside the INDIA bloc, including the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), had joined the protest.

"We were refrained from moving forward from the very beginning. There was a huge deployment of security personnel, CRPF, RAF, and other forces. We tried our level best to move forward. We will intensify the movement. Detention is not the solution; only resignation is... We are all working unitedly, and there is no separate strategy. Even BJD joined us today beyond the limits of the INDIA alliance,” the CPI leader stated.

Leaders from several INDIA bloc parties took part in the march and raised concerns over the SIR exercise. The protest is part of the Opposition's broader "Save Democracy" campaign, under which leaders have been holding demonstrations and public programmes against the Election Commission.

The latest controversy follows a report by The Indian Express claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised 14 objections during the SIR exercise. The Election Commission has maintained that the decisions were unanimous.

Opposition leaders have also questioned modifications made to Form 6 after the Supreme Court on Monday said it had not approved any modified version of the form being used for enrolment of new voters during the SIR exercise.