Congress protests at CEO office demanding CEC’s removal

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress on Friday attempted to gherao the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) here as part of the party’s nationwide protest demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar after a newspaper report claimed disquiet within the poll panel over the SIR of electoral rolls.

Several Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) leaders and workers, led by State president Bhakta Charan Das, held a protest march from the additional district magistrate’s office to the CEO’s office, carrying posters and banners.

Police detained several Congress leaders and workers after they were stopped from proceeding towards the CEO’s office. Congress supporters clashed with police personnel when they were prevented from moving ahead, party leaders claimed.

“CEC Gyanesh Kumar has been exposed… He committed an unapologetic crime by supporting ‘vote chori’. If he continues in his post, our country and democracy will be destroyed. So, we demand his resignation and arrest,” Das told reporters during the protest. Former OPCC president Jaydev Jena alleged that the BJP government had “destroyed democracy” and claimed Kumar had helped it. “We will continue our protest until Kumar resigns,” Jena said. “The media report on objections raised by two Election Commissioners has proved our leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ allegation.

The party will intensify its protest till Kumar resigns,” Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam said. The protest was organised after a national daily on Wednesday reported that the Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge, even as the national rollout of the SIR was under the supervision of the full commission.

The Election Commission, facing questions over the reported differences among its commissioners on the SIR process, said differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberations in any institution and that all its orders had full legal sanction and followed established statutory procedures.

In a statement, the poll panel also said that not only the three Election Commissioners but every officer of the EC was authorised to give suggestions to the commission to improve the electoral system.

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