Several Opposition leaders, including former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal and former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, were detained by police on Saturday while attempting to join a protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in the national capital.
“The government is misbehaving with us,” she said, adding, “We, the INDIA bloc, will continue to fight to strengthen people’s voice. No one is being allowed to go anywhere,” he said. But the people of this country will not allow this to happen,” he said.
The protest, called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), was organised over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with demonstrators demanding Kumar’s resignation. Banerjee was detained along with five Trinamool Congress MPs from South Avenue in central Delhi after police stopped her from joining the demonstration. She had staged a sit-in at a bus stop, wearing a bandage over her mouth. Among the MPs detained were Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen. They were taken away in a police bus. Speaking in a video statement from inside the bus, Banerjee accused the government of mistreating Opposition leaders. Speaking to reporters before his detention, the former Delhi Chief Minister alleged that restrictions were being imposed to prevent people from participating in the demonstration. “There are police personnel and paramilitary forces everywhere. People are not being allowed to leave their homes…The police are picking people up as they walk on the streets. Kejriwal alleged that the authorities were trying to suppress the issue of alleged vote theft. “They have created an atmosphere of authoritarianism across the country. Why?… They want to suppress this issue of ‘vote chori’ and continue doing it.
