Congress seeks PM’s resignation for ‘match-fixing’ polls, removal of CEC

Congress chief and LoP in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge (centre) chats with CPP Chairperson and MP Sonia Gandhi (left) as LoP in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is deep in thought during the CWC meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday; party General Secretary KC Venugopal on the right. Pic/PTI

The Congress on Tuesday demanded the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, suspension of the SIR, restoration of over 13 crore names struck off from the electoral rolls and the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "match-fixing" polls.

The opposition party made the demand after a two-and-a-half hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and general secretaries Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, among others.

Addressing the media Ramesh said, "Rahul Gandhi himself has been raising these issues related to polls in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and some did not believe him but now he has been proven right." "The elections in our country are not fair and transparent. They are match-fixing elections - match fixing between the Election Commission and PM-HM duo," he alleged. The CWC also demanded the immediate restoration of the 13.3 crore names removed from the electoral rolls.

Kharge put forward five demands of his party, including making public the complete data regarding every major change made to the electoral rolls and providing political parties with the electoral rolls and relevant data in a simple format and in a timely manner. In his remarks, Venugopal said the main demand is that Kumar has no moral right to continue as CEC for a single day. "He [CEC] will understand in the coming days what level of resistance we will build up for his resignation," he said.

"Gyanesh Kumar is only a tool. When dictators lose the confidence of the people they seek extraordinary tools to stay in power. His actions on SIR cannot be without the concurrence of his masters - PM and HM," Venugopal said.

[popcorn number="13.3CR" desc="No. of names Congress claims were deleted during the SIR process" class="Default"]

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