AAP slams Opposition leaders’ detention during march to EC
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slammed the BJP over the detention of the Opposition MPs marching to the EC office on Monday to seek answers on the allegations of duplicitous voting in recent elections.
The BJP and the Election Commission are “murdering” democracy, national media in-charge of AAP Anurag Dhanda stated. He flayed the lawmakers’ detention as an “autocratic” move, saying they just wanted to ask questions and demand data from the apex poll body.
Leaders of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge were detained while marching to the Election Commission office from Parliament. The protest was held against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged theft of votes.
The MPs were released after about two hours, police said.
More than 30 MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and TMC’s Sagarika Ghose, were taken to the Parliament Street Police Station.
The Election Commission had only given permission to 30 MPs to enter its premises, but the protesters were in “large numbers,” officials said.
Dhanda alleged that the Election Commission had no answers to the questions raised by the Opposition parties.
“Efforts are being made in a big way to toy with democracy. Ahead of Assembly polls, the voter lists are being tinkered with, deletion of Opposition parties’ voters and registration of fake votes to help the BJP,” Dhanda alleged.
The EC looks complicit because it has failed to respond to the questions raised by the Opposition, he said.
“The BJP has adopted a modus operandi to tamper with the voter lists ahead of elections with the support of the EC. This is not democracy, it is dictatorship,” the AAP leader said.
“Entire Opposition, whether INDIA block parties or AAP or TMC, everyone is united for fair elections without any tampering with the voter list,” he said.
The AAP, headed by Arvind Kejriwal, recently announced its separation from the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, led by Congress, questioning its working and lack of regular meetings.
