New Delhi: The INDIA bloc MPs, including Leaders of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, led a protest march on Monday from Parliament House to the Election Commission against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged “vote chori”, butnthey were soon stopped and detained by Delhi Police.
A high octane drama was witnessed just outside Parliament near Transport Bhawan when the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc members took a march from the Makar Dwar towards Election Commission, as there was a brief heated exchange of the MPs with the Delhi Police personnel.
Police had put up multiple layers of barricades on the way to prevent the MPs, protesting the voter roll revision in Bihar and the alleged poll theft, to march forward.
As the MPs were stopped, many of them sat on the road and raised slogans while some women MPs, including saree-clad Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra and the Congress’ Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani, climbed the barricading and raised slogans against the EC.
Even Samajwadi Party chief Alhilesh Yadav, his brother and party MP Dharmendra Yadav too climbed the barricades to march forward.
However, they were soon detained and taken away by police in buses lined up along the road and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station.
Even KC Venugopal, who accompanied Rahul Gandhi at the front had a heated exchange of words with the Delhi Police officers who stopped them from marching forward towards the poll panel office.
The MPs carried puut slogans like ‘vote chor, gaddi chor’, and also carried placards and a cap with SIR and vote theft written on it.
According to police, more than 200 MPs including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Derek O’Brien, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Alhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav, Imran Pratapgarhi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Tiruchi Siva, Abhay Kushwaha, Sanjay Yadav were detained.
Speaking to the media, Rahul Gandhi came down heavily on the government and said, “This is not a political fight, it is a fight to save constitution.”
“Actually, we cannot talk to the ECI, this is the reality,” Rahul Gandhi said while speaking to the media.
“The truth is before the nation and this fight is not political, it is to save the Constitution. It is fight for one man-one vote. We want a clean and accurate voter list,” he added.
Even Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the government saying that this is a “coward government”.
Several opposition MPs even fainted that included Congress Sanjana Jatav, Trinamool Congress’s Mitali Baig. Jatav was later admitted to RML Hospital for further treatment.
The Opposition MPs also alleged that the rattled Modi government brought the police to stop them from raising questions to the Election Commission.
However, after few hours all the opposition MPs were released.
Earlier in the day, the Election Commission has said that it has granted time to the opposition parties to meet at 12 noon and granted permission for 30 leaders from all the parties due ro space constraint.
The opposition led by Congress has been slamming the Election Commission over the alleged massive scale vote theft during last year lok Sabha polls and Rahul Gandhi had given a detailed presentation over the same issue during a press conference on August 7.
