Monday, 11 August 2025
Monday, 11 August 2025
The Trinamool Congress has demanded an FIR against the former chief election commission Rajiv Kumar.
After Monday’s march to Nirvachan Sadan from the Parliament was stopped midway by the Delhi Police, the Trinamool on X made multiple demands to restore credibility of the Election Commission, which has been under a severe cloud since Rahul Gandhi made an expose last week on alleged electoral manipulation and fraud.
“Four clear demands: One united Opposition, zero tolerance for BJP-EC’s election sabotage,” the Trinamool posted on X. “Immediate FIR against ex-CEC Rajiv Kumar for orchestrating voter list manipulation.”
The other demands include digital draft of electoral rolls be made public, EC should stop demanding BLA-II (Booth Level Activist) details from political parties and scrapping of SIR.
“No amount of barricades, batons or bogus arrests will save BJP’s rigging machinery. We will rip apart their election-fixing playbook clause by clause, lie by lie,” the Trinamool said.
Kumar was the CEC when the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the contentious Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana were held last year.
The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has several times raised the issue of voter list manipulation and demanded electoral rolls be handed over to the Congress and its allies in Maharashtra, which was denied by Kumar and his successor Gyanesh Kumar.
After the opposition leaders were stopped from marching to Nirvachan Sadan, the war of words between the Narendra Modi led government at the Centre and the opposition intensified.
Following the Election Commission’s repeated denial since Rahul Gandhi presented evidence of alleged “vote theft” in one Assembly segment of a Lok Sabha seat in Congress-ruled Karnataka the BJP fielded union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Kiren Rijiju to refute the charges.
“The country can see if there is anyone who is working against the Constitution, it is led by Rahul Gandhi. Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is not happening for the first time in the country,” Pradhan said addressing a news conference at the BJP headquarters.
“Congress lies about EVMs, raises issues of Maharashtra and Haryana election and creates mountain of lies. It is their well-thought out strategy to create a state of anarchy. I appeal to the Opposition and the Congress to raise all issues in Parliament.”
The Opposition, mainly the INDIA bloc, has accused the BJP-led government of not allowing discussion on the SIR in both the Houses of the Parliament.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Opposition parties have wasted a lot of time in the monsoon session.
"The government wants to pass a few important Bills in both the Houses. Due to the mindlessness of a person, because of a family, the country cannot suffer. Many Opposition MPs have also shown helplessness." he said.
The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul has received support of leaders from other parties, who were not part of his protests earlier.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who has been critical of Rahul in the past, said the issues raised by the leader of Opposition were concerning.
“Many people in India have multiple voter IDs, with over 40,000 such cases in a single legislative area in Karnataka, as highlighted by Rahul Gandhi. This raises concern about the integrity of the electoral process and the role of the EC in ensuring fair elections. They should bring proof to clarify,” PK told ANI on Sunday night.
Ahead of Monday’s march, Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin demanded a probe into the allegations made by Rahul on Thursday.
“The BJP has turned the EC into its poll rigging machinery. What happened in Bengaluru’s Mahadevpura is not an administrative lapse, it is a calculated conspiracy to steal the people’s mandate,” Stalin wrote in his X (formerly known as Twitter) handle. “We demand immediate release of complete machine readable voter roll for every state, an end to politically driven elections and an independent probe into this subversion of our democracy.”
“The police arrested Members of Parliament, the leaders of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, who hold constitutional posts for marching towards the fraud EC asking for data. The EC has ensured that India doesn’t have free and fair elections, and this arrest has shown the world that we are a step away from officially renaming our democracy to a dictatorship,” Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray wrote on his X handle.
