India’s opposition alliance, INDIA, has called a rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, 1 November, to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, has called on every student organisation in the country to set aside differences of political ideology and take part.
Urging people to join the movement without fear of police obstruction or baton charges, he said the BJP would not dare to take such steps again.
Opposition parties have been campaigning for some time for Gyanesh Kumar to resign. They allege that serious questions have arisen about the neutrality and credibility of the country’s electoral system.
Discontent over the role of the Election Commission is also growing among the opposition. Against that background, the alliance wants to ensure a large turnout of students and young people at Sunday’s rally.
In a video message, Rahul Gandhi said the rally was to protect democracy, stop vote theft and defend the constitution. It was not the programme of any one political party, he said.
He called on everyone unhappy with the actions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to join the movement.
To protect the country’s democracy, Rahul said, everyone had to come forward together. He appealed in particular to student organisations to put their political differences aside and join the movement to defend democracy and the constitution.
Telling people not to fear police obstruction or baton charges, he said the BJP would not dare to do such things again. The Congress leader called on everyone to come forward together to protect the constitution.
The opposition has also criticised the police’s handling of the protests against Gyanesh Kumar, accusing them of detaining demonstrators and suppressing the movement.
Earlier, several opposition leaders were detained on their way to a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Among them were four former chief ministers: Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan, Manik Sarkar and Arvind Kejriwal.
Rahul Gandhi and the Congress’s top leadership were not seen at that protest, however. Although the campaign had the same demand, it prompted talk of whether there was a distance between the Congress and leaders of the other opposition party involved.
There have recently been signs of that distance narrowing. After the arrest of two opposition leaders, Saurabh Das and Ashutosh Ranka, Rahul Gandhi stood by them. Expressing support on social media, he said that flying the national flag at Jantar Mantar was no crime.
That opposition party has since backed the INDIA alliance’s Sunday rally as well, prompting speculation in political circles about whether its leaders will appear at Ramlila Maidan.
It is still not certain whether the party’s leaders will attend. Its leader Abhijit Deep has not said anything clear on the matter.
The Congress and the other opposition party have campaigned separately for Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, but there is now a chance their programmes will be coordinated. Rahul Gandhi’s call for student organisations to join has also added a new dimension to the opposition’s activity.
Political circles are now watching how many student organisations, alongside the opposition parties, turn out for Sunday’s rally.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report