Congress Protests Nationwide Seeking CEC Gyanesh Kumar's Resignation; Gogoi Detained

The Congress on Friday rolled out a nationwide protest campaign pressing for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with demonstrations reported from Delhi, Patna, Jammu, Kolkata, Punjab, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

In the national capital, party leaders broke through barricades as they attempted to march towards the Election Commission office. Several workers were detained as police moved to halt the procession. Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav said Kumar must step down immediately, adding that the party would not stay silent while democracy was "being destroyed" and that those responsible would be held to account.

Earlier in the day, Indian Youth Congress workers marched from their Raisina Road office towards the Election Commission headquarters wearing masks bearing Kumar's face and with their hands bound in chains. The protesters raised slogans and carried posters and banners demanding accountability from the poll panel chief.

In Assam, state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi and a number of party workers were detained during the protest. In Patna, police turned water cannons on Congress workers who had taken out a march towards the Election Commission's office. Similar processions were organised in Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jammu and other parts of the country.

The campaign follows a direction issued by the party on Thursday asking its state units to hold protest marches to their respective state election commission offices on September 25, calling for Kumar's immediate arrest, removal from office and an independent review of all decisions and electoral roll changes made under him.

The demand gained momentum after a report said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over the past ten months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge, even as the national rollout of the SIR was supervised by the full commission. Their objections, according to the report, covered the manner in which statutory voter registration Form 6 was amended, the handling of additions and deletions from voter lists, and centralised control over the electoral roll database.

Facing scrutiny over the objections raised by two of its commissioners on the SIR process, the Election Commission has maintained that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and that all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures. In a statement, the panel also said that not only the three commissioners but every officer of the EC is fully authorised to offer suggestions to improve the electoral system.

Opposition pressure has intensified since the report, with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday, calling Kumar a "traitor", demanding his resignation and warning that the Congress would not remain silent while democracy in India was "being destroyed".