Jammu, Oct. 11 -- As opposition parties escalate protests over the deletion of names from electoral rolls, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Sunday came out firmly in support of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, declaring that no amount of agitation would force his resignation.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Athawale defended the Election Commission's revision of voter lists and accused the opposition of politicising the issue to corner the government. At the same time, he acknowledged that mistakes can creep into such a massive exercise and said they must be corrected.
Athawale said that, after verification, the Commission has removed roughly 13 crore names from voter lists...