LEADER of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and others on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The plea has also been filed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress Party (T MC) MP Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaderTejashwi Prasad Yadav,Nationalist Congress Party (Pawar) (NCPSCP) leader Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut, Communist Party of India’s (CPI) D Raja, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM) MP Mahua Majhi, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML leader) E T Mohammed Basheer. The petition was filed in the evening, according to the Supreme Court website. Opposition MPs and leaders, accompanied by hundreds of supporters and activists, on Monday started their“March for Democracy” to the Supreme Court to submit a petition on their “vote chori” charge and against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Those leading the march included Leaders of Opposition (LoPs) in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Gandhi and Kharge respectively, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, CPI’s D Raja, Baby, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, besides Sule, Raut, CPI(ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya and Basheer.

 

Congress MPs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot and Mukul Wasnik and TMC leader Sagarika Ghosh were also present, besides activists Yogendra Yadav and Nandita Narayan and AISA chief Neha Bora. The leaders along with a large number of supporters and activists earlier converged at the Constitution Club and headed towards Barakhamba road junction for joining the march to the Supreme Court in four air conditioned buses. They slowly headed towards Barakhamba Road junction, from where they started their march to the Supreme Court, protesting to highlight the issue of “vote chori” and against the prohibitory measures imposed by the Government to stop them from holding demonstrations. However, police soon stopped the march at the barricaded Bhagwan Dass Road. Some of leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, climbed atop a vehicle. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference, announced the decision to march along with other INDIA bloc leaders to the Supreme Court and file a petition against the poll panel chief and “vote chori”, after the Chief Justice of India declined a request for meeting the LoPs. Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the Congress, he also asked the CEC to “turn approver” and resign as the Opposition’s fight was against the bigger powers that were behind him.