INDIA bloc raises Bihar SIR, 'vote theft'

Members of Parliament belonging to INDIA bloc on Monday took out a vociferous march from Parliament House with the aim of reaching the Election Commission of India's headquarters to submit a memorandum against the Special Intensive Revision of the Bihar electoral rolls, but were stopped by the police barricades on Parliament Street. Many of them including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Congress), Sanjay Raut (SS-UBT) and Sagarika Ghosh (Trinamool) were briefly detained at the nearby police station before being allowed to leave.

While ECI brass responded to the Opposition request for a meeting by saying 30 representatives of the bloc can meet them, the Opposition refused it by maintaining that all the marching MPs should have been allowed to attend the meeting. The leaders had decided early morning that they will only "collectively" meet the EC officials and not adhere to the latter's permission for only 30 MPs. Police said the march was stopped because no prior permission for it was taken.

The march was led by leaders of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP-SP veteran Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and other floor leaders of the INDIA bloc and Opposition campers said about 300 MPs joined it. They marched with placards against the SIR and "vote-theft" and raised slogans against the Centre and the ECI.

Gandhi told journalists that EC's "refusal to meet MPs showed the "state of democracy" in the country. Akhilesh Yadav said his party had been raising questions about election irregularities earlier as well. "This is not the first time that fingers are being pointed at the Election Commission."

Derek O'Brien (Trinamool) said, "The Opposition had planned to present four demands to the EC brass in case they were allowed to meet them." Manoj Jha of RJD said: "If EC cannot meet MPs citing the excuse of space, then that in itself is a comment on what kind of work you are doing.." Later, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge hosted a dinner for all INDIA bloc MPs at Hotel Taj Palace here.