PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
In response to the call given by the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, hundreds of Congress party leaders and workers participated in the ‘ Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ March to the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Monday. Led by the Pradesh Congress Committee president Ganesh Godiyal, the workers of the Uttarakhand unit of Congress marched from Barakhamba Road to the Supreme Court. Godiyal said that the public vote is the greatest power in a democracy and no institution or government has the right to weaken this power. He alleged that during the tenure of the BJP government, the credibility of constitutional institutions is getting eroded.
Godiyal stated that the Election Commission has a constitutional responsibility to conduct free, fair and transparent elections in the country. However, it is not providing satisfactory answers to the serious questions raised by the Congress party regarding alleged irregularities in voter lists, deletions of voters’ names and the transparency of the electoral process. He stated that the questions raised regarding the functioning of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar deserve an impartial and high-level investigation. “The Congress party demands CEC’s immediate resignation, investigation into his criminal involvement in the alleged irregularities and strict legal action,’’ he said.
Leader of the opposition in Vidhan Sabha, Yashpal Arya said that the ‘ Vote Bachano, Desh Bachao’ campaign being run under leadership of Rahul Gandhi is not merely a political movement of the Congress party but a campaign to protect the voting rights of every citizen, democratic values and the impartiality of constitutional institutions.
The chairman of the Election Campaign Committee of State Congress, Pritam Singh said that in Uttarakhand, the Congress party has consistently raised serious questions about irregularities in the SIR process of electoral rolls.
Former chief minister Harish Rawat said that the Congress party will not allow the voting rights of the country’s citizens to be tampered with at any cost. He said that in a country where votes are not secure, democracy cannot be secure.
