THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday organised ‘Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao’ marches in several States across the country to take on INDIA bloc’s Ramlila Maidan rally against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged electoral irregularities. In Shimla, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma led the protest march that witnessed massive participation from BJP workers. The march was set to culminate in a rally at the district’s Chaura Maidan. Speaking to reporters, Sarma targeted the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, saying: “Should the Himachal Pradesh election be cancelled or not? Should the Kerala election be cancelled or not? Should his own election from Rae Bareli be cancelled or not? Let the Congress Governments (in States where the party is in power) resign first; then they should come to us (to demand resignation).” “Let them boycott elections in Uttar Pradesh saying that vote theft has taken place...States where they (Opposition) win elections, the process is good for them, but they seem to find irregularities wherever the BJP wins polls,” he said. Taking part in the ‘padyatra’ in Shimla, BJP MP Anurag Thakur told IANS: “Congress is spreading anarchy to hinder India’s progress. The same Congress, whose leaders were responsible for the massacre of Sikhs on November 1, 1984, has chosen this date for murdering democracy and the Constitution.” He accused Rahul Gandhi of taking the support of foreign forces, saying: “His intention to bring in a regime change will never be successful as people of the country are watching his drama.” A similar march was taken out in Haryana’s Rohtak under the leadership of BJP National President Nitin Nabin.

 

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde took part in the protest rally in Thane. The BJP on Sunday described the INDIA bloc rally as a ‘chaotic, unruly spectacle’ and assailed Rahul Gandhi for his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election, saying the Congress leader was speaking like the ‘son of a Mughal emperor’. “This Hindustan does not belong to your ‘abbujan’. It belongs to Hindustanis,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, hitting back at Gandhi for calling 2024 election ‘illegal’. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Patra said Prime Minister Modi will not go anywhere so long as the Congress leader is there manufacturing ‘non-issues in his bid to create anarchy’. Nitin Nabin on Sunday lashed out at the Congress over the INDIA bloc’s Delhi rally, saying it was targeting constitutional institutions out of frustration at not getting people’s mandate, as he led a march in Hayana’s Rohtak to counter the opposition campaign on the ‘vote chori’ charge. Addressing ‘Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao padyatra’, Nabin said that instead of seeking atonement and offering an apology for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Congress has come out to protest on the anniversary of the killings in Delhi. “The Congress party should have sought atonement and offered an apology for the acts committed against the Sikh brethren -- the massacres and the killings that took place on this very day in 1984. Instead, today, they have come out to stage a protest,” the BJP President said. The BJP took out a protest march in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar, seeking an apology fromCongress and its leader Rahul Gandhi over the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, ahead of the INDIA bloc’s ‘Vote Bachao Desh Bachao’ rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.