New Delhi: Opposition MPs and leaders accompanied by hundreds of supporters and activists Monday started their “March for Democracy” to the Supreme Court to submit a petition on their “vote chori” charge and against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Those leading the march included Leaders of Opposition (LoPs) in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI’s D Raja, CPI-M leader M A Baby, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, besides NCP-SCP leader Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut, CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya and IUML leader E T Mohammed Basheer.
Congress MPs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot and Mukul Wasnik and TMC leader Sagarika Ghosh were also present, besides activists Yogendra Yadav and Nandita Narayan and AISA chief Neha Bora.
The leaders along with a large number of supporters and activists earlier converged at the Constitution Club and headed towards Barakhamba road junction for joining the march to the Supreme Court in four air conditioned buses.
They slowly headed towards Barakhamba Road junction, from where they started their march to the Supreme Court, protesting to highlight the issue of “vote chori” and against the prohibitory measures imposed by the government to stop them from holding demonstrations.
However, police soon stopped the march at the barricaded Bhagwan Dass Road. Some of leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, climbed atop a vehicle.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference, announced the decision to march along with other INDIA bloc leaders to the Supreme Court and file a petition against the poll panel chief and “vote chori”, after the Chief Justice of India declined a request for meeting the LoPs.
Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the Congress, he also asked the CEC to “turn approver” and resign as the opposition’s fight was against the bigger powers that were behind him.
“Resign, turn approver; you (Kumar) have made a mistake but you are not the mind behind the mistake,” he said.
“We know Gyanesh Kumar is unable to sleep at night; I am telling him directly ‘you will not survive as CEC'”, he said.
Noting that there was resistance earlier too but it had not spilled over the streets in the form of protests, the former Congress president said this fight is not going to stop and will continue even if it takes days or years.
People should continue with the protests as the country cannot be saved in a day or two, he said, while describing the current protests as “tandav”.
“This is like Shiva’s dance and anyone can join Shiva’s ‘baraat’ (wedding procession),” he said.
Gandhi also claimed that 200 officers of the government were in “touch with them” and providing them with information.
The opposition march started after Delhi Police denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated site for protests and named three new spots for holding such demonstrations.
The Congress said democracy no longer mattered to those in power and that it was all a matter of “demokursi” and was a definite sign of “panic”.
“The poisonous pair is embattled, and we have seen in the past few days how brutally they have dealt with peaceful public protests,” Jairam Ramesh said on X.
“Democracy no longer matters for them. It is all a matter of Demokursi,” Ramesh added.
Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar issued a standing order on October 11, naming Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in east Delhi as the new designated sites for protests and demonstrations.
The move comes amid heightened security arrangements in the national capital following calls to gather for protests at Jantar Mantar.