‘Constitutional rights of people should not be taken away’: Tharoor at INDIA bloc rally

New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said the INDIA bloc’s protest was about safeguarding the constitutional rights of citizens and not about any political party, as Opposition leaders gathered at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan to protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Speaking at the rally, Tharoor said, “This is not about parties, this is not about Congress, this is about the very simple message that the constitutional rights of the Indian people should not be taken away by the Election Commission. What they did was simply wrong, you cannot cut 130 million voters. This is not acceptable, what we need is an absolutely clean election register.”

“We are trying to safeguard the constitutional rights of the people of the country,” he added.

Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the party was committed to protecting the Constitution.

“Congress is a peaceful party…They have made a constitution, so it is the Congress’s duty to protect the Constitution,” he said.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav targeted the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister over the alleged reduction in voter numbers.

“Even the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh himself has accepted that 1 crore 27 lakh votes have decreased. And when did he remember this? When he lost the MLC election,” Yadav said.

Taking a dig at the BJP’s ‘double-engine’ slogan, he said, “Those who used to talk about the double engine have themselves become double zero. And not only did they become double zero, along with double zero; they could not even accept losing once.”

He further alleged that they colluded with the Election Commission and got the counting done a second time.

Questioning the source of the data, Yadav said, “And after all that, what is being remembered? That 1 crore 27 lakh votes are not of Hindus. Where did they learn this from? Who gave them this data? This is not the kind of data you just find lying on the street, or that any random roadside person would hand to you.”

Former Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai also demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, saying, “…Gyanesh Kumar will definitely have to resign.”

The INDIA bloc gathered at Ramlila Maidan to protest against the SIR exercise, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Protesters were heading towards the venue in large numbers, where security arrangements remained heightened.

–IANS

rs/dpb