The Congress has called on INDIA bloc parties and citizens to join a protest march in Delhi on Monday demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Congress leader KC Venugopal said senior leaders would submit a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India seeking intervention over alleged vote theft and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Participation across the bloc remains uncertain, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to attend. She was detained in Delhi on Saturday during a separate protest calling for Kumar’s removal and an end to the revision exercise. Several other opposition leaders were also detained, including Arvind Kejriwal, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar, along with leaders and activists from multiple parties.
The detentions followed police action that disrupted the separate protest, including restrictions affecting transport and internet access in parts of the capital. Banerjee called her detention a kidnapping and said Rahul Gandhi had asked her to remain in Delhi; her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, is also due to travel there on Monday.
The INDIA bloc had met President Droupadi Murmu on Friday to raise allegations of vote theft and demand Kumar’s resignation. The parties have found common ground on the electoral-roll revision despite broader divisions, after claims that two other election commissioners had objected to some decisions connected with the exercise. The Election Commission has said decisions taken over the previous year were unanimous and that differing views are a normal part of institutional deliberation.