Opposition MPs met President Draupadi Murmu at 8 pm on Friday night regarding alleged rigging in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list and the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner. 10 leaders of the India Alliance expressed their concerns regarding the functioning of the Election Commission during their meeting with the President. The leaders of the alliance have also submitted a memorandum to the President. Opposition parties also raised the demand to stop the use of EVMs and conduct elections through ballot papers.
On the other hand, at Vijay Chowk, opposition MPs including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal raised slogans against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi said that PM Modi is the mastermind of vote theft. Mamta Banerjee said that the President has asked for evidence regarding vote theft. He has also assured to investigate the matter.
Also read: 'Despite Rahul Gandhi's lies, BJP is winning', said Shah after the by-election results.
After meeting the President, Rahul Gandhi said, 'The entire country knows that votes are being stolen. Narendra Modi is its main architect. Amit Shah and Gyanesh Kumar are going to implement it. The President of India did not deny this today.
President asked for evidence: Mamata Banerjee
Mamta Banerjee said, 'We have submitted a memorandum. She adopted a positive attitude and said that she would investigate the matter. She will look at all the details and needs proof. They have asked us to send the evidence and we have said that we will. The country is very worried and as the custodian of the Constitution you should ensure that democracy survives… Her attitude is very positive and she has said that she will investigate.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the leaders of our alliance parties met the President and submitted a memorandum to him. We had specifically gone to inform the President about the movement that we had started four days ago against vote theft. We completely presented our side to them. We emphasized on the issue of vote theft and the serious mistake of Gyanesh Kumar.
Demand to conduct elections through ballot paper
Kharge further said that the alliance demanded to stop using EVMs and conduct elections through ballot paper. The Congress President said that he (President) asked for evidence of incidents of vote theft. We are collecting this evidence now and will hand it over. We will also give all other necessary information.
Also read: UP Rajya Sabha elections: BJP won 8 seats and SP won unopposed on 2 seats.
Modi and Shah bent on ending democracy: Kharge
Kharge accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of destroying democracy. Raised this issue before the President also. He said, 'We also discussed that PM Modi and Amit Shah are bent on destroying the democracy of the country and are actively taking steps in this direction. She listened to us carefully and said that she would thoroughly investigate the matter, consult the concerned parties and decide on appropriate further action.