New Delhi: Giving further momentum to his politics of street protest, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday led INDIA bloc leaders to another resistance-packed day — moving from the opposition grouping’s vegetarian lunch meeting to near Jantar Mantar in a procession of buses for a surprise dharna.
But for the second day, police stalled the planned anti-CEC protests midway, forcibly detaining him and other leaders.
“We are not going to stop protesting till (Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar resigns. This is a fight to protect the most sacred thing in this country. There is nothing that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can do that will stop us,” Gandhi said.
There were several dramatic moments in the nearly three-hour-long bus procession and an impromptu sit-in at the roundabout in front of the Shangri-La hotel when the opposition MPs were stopped by security personnel, with Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lying flat on her back on the street, clutching a copy of the Constitution, along with other women leaders.
Rahul Gandhi kept resisting police attempts to put him inside a van for detention. The INDIA bloc leaders jostled with security personnel who tried to detain them and clear the area.
A day after INDIA bloc MPs’ march from Parliament and Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hosted the lunch for the MPs of the alliance at a South Indian restaurant at Janpath, seen by many as a show of solidarity and a cover for launching another street protest.
The MPs converged at the all-vegetarian Sagar Ratna. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi was trolled online by a section of X users for having a non-vegetarian roll from ‘Khan Chacha’ eatery during his eight-hour sit-in at the Akashvani Bhawan.
The lunch began at 1:30 PM with opposition MPs congregating for a second straight day.
After about one-and-a-half hours, the MPs streamed out of the eatery and went and sat in three buses parked on Janpath Road and headed towards Jantar Mantar.
Some Congress leaders, including Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Imran Masood, Imran Pratapgarhi, Deepender Hooda and Srinivas B V climbed the roof of the bus in which Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka were travelling, and waved the tricolour, as the procession crawled from Janpath to Jantar Mantar, bringing the high security area to a halt for the second day.
However, the buses were stopped by a multi-layered security cordon at Ashoka Road, after travelling a kilometre, near the Shangri-La hotel, barely another kilometre away from the Jantar Mantar protest site.
MPs of the Congress, TMC, CPI-M, CPI, RJD, IUML and some other parties were among the protesters.
The Samajwadi Party was unrepresented at an INDIA bloc lunch, with the Congress attributing the absence of some allies to short notice. However, SP sources separately voiced concerns over a lack of consultation ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s surprise protests.
Representatives of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP also could not attend because of prior commitments.
‘Save Democracy March’ held in Jammu
Jammu: INDIA bloc leaders took out a joint ‘save democracy’ march in Jammu on Wednesday and demanded Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s removal and arrest, alleging large-scale deletion of names from electoral rolls.
Leaders of the Congress, National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI(M) and other parties participated in the rally. They carried their respective party flags, raised slogans against the CEC, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and burned Kumar’s effigy.
Congress working president Raman Bhalla, NC provincial president Jammu Rattan Lal Gupta, PDP youth vice-president Virender Singh Sonu and CPI(M) leaders led the march.
Bhalla alleged that Kumar had “stolen votes” at the behest of the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded his immediate arrest.
He sought dissolution of Parliament and the assemblies in states where, he alleged, governments were formed after “vote theft”, followed by fresh elections.
Gupta said the INDIA bloc was protesting against what he described as “vote theft” and “chanda theft”, alleging that democracy in the country was being undermined.
He demanded that electoral rolls from which “crores of voters” had been deleted be prepared afresh to protect the constitutional right to vote.
PDP leader Sonu alleged that 13.60 crore votes had been deleted from electoral rolls and demanded that those responsible be held accountable.
He said the issue had created confusion across the country and that the facts behind the alleged deletions should come out. Sonu said the PDP had also been participating in protests on the issue and asserted that justice should be ensured to voters.
A CPI(M) leader alleged that 13 crore votes had been “stolen”.
The INDIA bloc leaders said their agitation would continue until their demands were addressed.
