New Delhi [India], October 14 (ANI): The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will hold a protest in Delhi on October 15 against alleged “vote chori” and demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Tuesday.
The announcement came during a meeting of party office-bearers at the AAP headquarters to discuss the police action against the ongoing movement and chalk out a strategy to intensify the agitation.
AAP MLAs, councillors and office-bearers from the state, district, assembly constituency and ward levels will come together to protest.
In an official statement, Bharadwaj reiterated the party’s demand for Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and said the agitation would continue through non-violent means.
“Our primary demand is Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. Our protest will continue until he resigns. Delhi Police can beat us with batons, drag us along the streets, tear our clothes or break our heads, but we will continue to demand our rights through non-violence and ensure that Gyanesh Kumar resigns,” he said.
Bharadwaj also criticised the government’s decision to de-notify Jantar Mantar as a protest site, alleging that the move reflected its nervousness over the growing agitation.
He said the government should allow the party to hold its demonstration at Ramlila Maidan if permission to protest at Jantar Mantar was not granted.
“The government’s decision to de-notify Jantar Mantar as a protest site reflected its nervousness. The government feels that even 50,000 police personnel cannot secure Jantar Mantar because people, children and young women are continuing to reach the site,” he said.
“If the government cannot permit us to protest at Jantar Mantar, it should give us Ramlila Maidan. We are ready to hold a peaceful protest there as well,” Bharadwaj said.
Senior AAP leader and Gujarat in-charge Gopal Rai accused the PM Narendra Modi-led government of using coercive measures to suppress the movement and protect the Chief Election Commissioner.
He said, “The Modi government has resorted to dictatorship to protect Gyanesh Kumar. It believes that it can crush this movement by using the police, shutting down trains, Metro services and the internet, and filing FIRs. An important meeting of all AAP MLAs, councillors and office-bearers at the state, district, assembly constituency and ward levels has been convened today.”
Rai said the meeting had been convened to formulate a strategy to intensify the agitation in the coming days, with the party demanding Kumar’s resignation, cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and free and fair elections.
Gopal Rai further added, “The meeting will formulate a strategy to intensify the movement in the coming days to demand Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, the cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and free and fair elections.”
“This is a people’s movement to save the country. It will continue until Gyanesh Kumar resigns, the SIR process is cancelled, and a system of free and fair elections is established,” Rai said.
He further warned that if the government continued what he described as repression, the movement, currently concentrated in Delhi, would spread across the country.
AAP leaders have been part of the ongoing agitation against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. (ANI)