Rahul and Tejashwi were joined by CPI (ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI General Secretary D Raja, VIP chief Mukesh Sahni and senior state leaders of other opposition parties.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav led a massive protest march in Patna on Wednesday along with other top leaders of the INDIA alliance, registering their protest against the Special Intensive Revision of voter list in Bihar.
Rahul and Tejashwi were joined by CPI (ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI General Secretary D Raja, VIP chief Mukesh Sahni and senior state leaders of other opposition parties. They were atop a vehicle during the protest march which started at Income Tax Roundabout in Patna.
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The protest march was supposed to culminate at the Election Commission’s office in Patna with submission of a memorandum against the ongoing electoral rolls revision ahead of the Bihar Assembly polls.
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However, the march was stopped near Bihar Assembly and only a delegation was allowed to meet the Chief Electoral Officer in Patna.
Through this protest march and state-wide chakka-jam the INDIA Alliance successfully sent out the message ahead of the hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday that the special voter list revision drive is not acceptable to the opposition parties.
Rahul Gandhi once again hit out at the Election Commission and alleged that the institution is not performing its duty of protecting the constitution.
He alleged that the Election Commission is helping the BJP. He once again raked up the issue of Maharashtra’s inflated voter list.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said, “I want to tell the people of India and Bihar that just like the Maharashtra elections were stolen, an attempt is being made to steal the Bihar elections too. They have realised that we have understood the Maharashtra model, so now they have come with the Bihar model.”
He added, “This is a ploy to snatch voting rights of the poor. But they do not know that this is Bihar and the people of Bihar will never let this happen.”
Earlier, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav made an attempt to turn this movement into a struggle between Gujarat and Bihar alleging that people from Gujarat are out to loot Bihar votes.
In a direct attack on PM Modi and Amit Shah, he said “Will two Gujaratis decide which Bihari can vote and which can’t?
He also alleged that the Election Commission has lost its credibility and become a wing of a political party.
Other leaders argued that the 11 documents being demanded are not available to ordinary citizens. This threatens to remove names of crores of people from the voter list, which is a direct violation of democratic rights.
The impact of the Bihar Bandh was visible across the state since morning. Protesters forced shopkeepers to close their shops, blocked national highways, state highways, local roads and railway routes disrupting movement of trains.
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