Bihar Congress march on CEO office halted as police use water cannons in Patna
Bihar Congress workers marching to the Chief Electoral Officer's office in Patna were dispersed with water cannons; the party has called a district-level march on September 28.
Congress workers in Patna were stopped with water cannons on Friday as they tried to march to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, part of nationwide demonstrations called by the party over the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The protesters assembled at the R-Block thoroughfare and set out towards the local Election Commission office, carrying placards and raising slogans against Mr. Kumar and the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. Police deployed water cannons near the Bihar Assembly premises to push them back from the route.
Purnea's independent MP Rajesh Ranjan, popularly known as Pappu Yadav, joined the demonstration. Among the slogans raised were "vote chor, chunav aayog chhod" and "BJP murdabad".
The protesters also pressed for an independent review of the changes made to electoral rolls since the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise was carried out. A Congress worker at the site said the party has called a march to the district collector's office in every district on September 28 as the second leg of the agitation.
Separately, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief and Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Chirag Paswan told reporters in Patna that the Election Commission ought to clear the misgivings that have taken hold over reported differences within the poll panel regarding the SIR of electoral rolls. He said he was not defending the constitutional body simply because he is part of the government.
The SIR exercise, under which the names of crores of voters have reportedly been deleted from electoral rolls in several States, began in Bihar in August 2025 ahead of the State Assembly elections and was later extended to other States in phases.