Rahul leads Congress surge

There have been protests by opposition parties and groups demanding the ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The government on its part has imposed unprecedented restrictions on the movement of people in the national capital, thus inadvertently highlighting the agitation against the Election Commission.

On the ground, the Congress launched massive protests in the city spearheaded by the Gandhi siblings, Rahul, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Priyanka, Member of Parliament. The two along with hundreds of party workers were detained on two successive days by the Delhi police, but they remain adamant on their demand for the removal of the CEC.

The I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders had on Friday in a memorandum to the President sought her intervention, urging her to nullify the Assembly polls in the past two years on the grounds of illegal deletion of names, which enabled the ruling party to emerge victorious. The Centre has initiated strong measures to curb the protests by massive deployment of forces throughout Delhi, where activists of the Cockroach Janata Party threatened to hold a demonstration at the Jantar Mantar.

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To make matters worse, the Bharatiya Janata Party has openly come out in the defence of the Election Commission, leading to a charge that it was hand in glove with the constitutional body. The issue which is at stake is the credibility of the Election Commission, whose functioning should not create any doubt in anyone’s mind about its fairness.