Indian National Congress Protests Alleged Electoral Roll Manipulation

Speaking to reporters during the protest, Pala cited an Indian Express investigative report which claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months concerning decisions and procedures related to electoral rolls and database access. Pala said objections raised by the two other Election Commissioners were not given due consideration. He further alleged that changes to election-related laws had enabled the BJP to influence the functioning of the electoral system. “For the last ten months, fourteen objections has been raised by the two other Election Commissioners, but he did not look to all those, but he bulldozed all this. He did it with the help of BJP. Before doing this, they’ve already amended the law and the Act. The BJP is manipulating the mandate of the public. You have seen in Haryana, the Congress was supposed to win the election; in Maharashtra, the Congress was supposed to win the election; and in West Bengal, there’s a huge manipulation, huge deletions of the voters from the list. That’s why we protest today,” he claimed. “Today, the people know that all the lists and all the data have been manipulated from Delhi by a single man, the CEC and his office,” Pala alleged. The MPCC president demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner and called for an inquiry into his conduct. He also demanded that the CEC face legal action, saying such steps were necessary to restore public confidence in the electoral system. “We demand that he should step down and resign immediately. We demand that, after his resignation, there should be a commission inquiry against him. We demand that he should be arrested. Then only the people will have trust and faith in the Constitution of India,” he said. He said the participation reflected concerns over the future of the country’s electoral system and called for accountability in the functioning of the Election Commission. “I am grateful to all the volunteers, the Youth Congress, the Mahilas, and all our supporters from the Congress Party, and many others not from the Congress Party, but they joined us in this protest. Though the notice is short – only yesterday, last night- so many of them have come out because of their vision for the future of India, and the vision and the support for the system which we have been trusted for so long. But now the system have collapsed, the BJP has manipulated,” he said. Congress units in multiple states also staged agitations over the issue, including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur. The protests across states come amid a political row over the SIR exercise following an Indian Express report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months concerning decisions and procedures related to electoral rolls and database access. The Election Commission has rejected the characterisation of these objections as institutional dissent, saying operational queries, internal feedback and administrative suggestions are part of the normal functioning of a multi-member constitutional body. The ECI has maintained that all final decisions concerning SIR were unanimous. The Congress has also indicated that opposition parties may move an impeachment motion against Kumar in Parliament. The issue is expected to come up at the Congress Working Committee meeting scheduled for September 29 in New Delhi. (ANI)