The Opposition Congress on Monday staged an all-out protest across Assam, demanding the resignation and arrest of the country’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar.
Responding to the call of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), thousands of party leaders and workers hit the streets in the protest organised by the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), pledging to safeguard the impartiality of the electoral system and democratic values.
Levelling grave allegations that the CEC betrayed democracy and the nation by acting in the interests of the ruling party, Congress launched nationwide protests, as part of which APCC president and MP Gaurav Gogoi led the agitation in Assam, organised by the Nagaon District Congress Committee.
AICC secretary Manoj Chauhan, MP Rakibul Hussain, former MLA and Nagaon bye-election candidate Sibamoni Bora, and Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress president Mira Borthakur Goswami and other party leaders and workers also took part in the protest in Nagaon.
The protesters registered their fierce outrage by burning effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Assam PCC president Gaurav Gogoi demanded the immediate removal and arrest of the CEC, asserting that all quarters must speak out unitedly to preserve the transparency, neutrality and democratic values of the nation’s electoral system.
Meanwhile, the Congress protest assumed an intense form in Guwahati as well. Early in the morning, hundreds of leaders and workers led by Congress leaders gathered at the Manabendra Sarma Complex in Dispur to stage the demonstration.
Carrying banners and posters, the protesters prepared to bring out a protest march onto the streets, but a large police contingent barricaded the main gate of the complex to foil the attempt.
Confined within the office premises, Congress leaders and workers chanted slogans against the Union government and the Election Commission.
Apart from Nagaon and Guwahati, extensive protest programmes were carried out under the auspices of respective District Congress Committees across almost all districts, including Golaghat, Jorhat, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Nalbari and Dhubri.
