THE INDIA bloc on Wednesday finalised a joint action plan over the SIR row, including holding rallies and ‘save democracy marches’, with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge asserting that all parties agreed that elections should be held through ballot papers instead of EVMs. The Opposition grouping made the assertion after a threeand-a-half hour meeting of its leaders, including Kharge, former Congress chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule. At a joint briefing by the bloc leaders after their meeting, Kharge said they decided on a joint action plan. Kharge said the parties have decided that involving young people and NGOs, “save democracy” marches will be taken out from October 2-8 and demonstrations will be held before the District Magistrate’s office. On October 6, all Opposition MPs will march to the Election Commission, he said. The Leaders of Opposition will seek appointment from the President of India and will make a representation in the second week of October against “the vote chori Government”, he said. “We will hold a five big rallies and a date and place of which would be decided. We will tell people how the Government is snatching the right of the people to elect their Government for running the country,” he said. Kharge said that on November 1, a mega rally would be organised in Delhi. INDIA bloc leaders appeal to the Supreme Court that it should expedite the cases of SIR and electoral malpractices, Kharge said. “Now everyone is realising that what Rahul ji was saying is correct and it is attracting attention. First Prime Minister Narendra Modi did ‘notebandi’ now doing ‘votebandi’, taking away people’s rights,” he said.

 

Asked about reverting to ballots instead of EVMs, Kharge said everyone 100 per cent agreed on it that all elections should be on ballot and that the laws framed by this “chori Government” in power should be annulled. He said some leaders participated in the meeting online like Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM chief Hemant Soren. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav skipped the meet. However, the Samajwadi Party was represented by its other leaders at the meeting. Later Akhilesh hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that its ‘biggest sorrow’ was that the INDIA bloc is ‘united’. Kharge charged that the real “puppeteers” of the Election Commission are Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Rahul Gandhi said all parties are of the opinion that the democratic structure of India has been attacked by Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Shah and CEC Gyanesh Kumar. “We are not going to take it lying down, we will ensure that those who have destroyed Indian democracy are punished,” he said. In her remarks, Banerjee said a “big scam” has happened in the country-whose consequences the public is suffering. The BJP, in collusion with the Election Commission, formed Governments in different States, she said. The parties that attended the meeting were the Congress, Samajwadi Party, All India Trinamool Congress, NCP(SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), Rashtriya Janata Dal, CPI(M), CPI, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, CPI-ML, IUML, Kerala Congress (M), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, RevolutionarySocialist Party, Kerala Congress (Jacob) and All India Forward Bloc. Independent Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal also attended the meeting.