BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad defended the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as protests over alleged electoral fraud continued in Delhi. He said India’s government would be conducted through Parliament rather than street protests and argued that recent bypoll victories in Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry showed voters had rejected efforts to create disorder.
Prasad accused Congress of turning street demonstrations into a political weapon after electoral defeats, while saying the BJP was not opposed to protests. He also said claims that President Droupadi Murmu had not rejected allegations of “vote chori” insulted the office of the President.
More than 1,000 people, including youth CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and other leaders, were detained in Delhi on Saturday morning. Former chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar, along with AISA president Neha Bora, were also detained. Police and paramilitary forces stopped the group from reaching Jantar Mantar, citing a lack of permission for the protest.
The Congress-led INDIA bloc had submitted a memorandum to Murmu on Friday after four days of demonstrations led by Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi later urged protesters to continue, saying the opposition had information it needed.