New Delhi, Oct. 9 -- m

After a meeting of the INDIA bloc with President Droupadi Murmu on Friday to raise alleged illegalities in the electoral system, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said he was "stunned" that "she did not deny" the assertion, though she did seek proof.

"We have all the proof of how elections were stolen. The entire country has seen it," he added. There was no word as such from the President's office on the discussions.

"We will go to the Supreme Court on Monday to meet the Chief Justice of India and hand over a memorandum to him," the Congress leader said.

Gandhi led a group of Opposition MPs and party leaders in a march from Parliament House towards Rashtrapati Bhavan, and a smaller group then met the President to demand that Gyanesh Kumar resign as Chief Election Commissioner.

Their memorandum set out four main demands: Resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and repeal of the 2023 law that provides life-long immunity to the CEC and ECs; immediate suspension of the SIR and restoration of all 13.3 crore voters deleted from electoral rolls; a return to paper ballots for all elections; and to repeal all Assembly elections over the last two years "in which conclusive evidence of vote chori has been presented".

President Murmu sought proof of 'vote chori' from the leaders and the INDIA bloc will hand over the evidence it has to her when she is ready to accept it, Gandhi told reporters after the delegation comprising him, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, NCP(SP)'s Supriya Sule, SP's Rajeev Rai, RJD's Manoj Jha, VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby and CPI's D Raja met her.

"We approach you because, in moments when every other door has been closed, the people of India look to the Office of the President as the final guardian of that covenant. We appeal to your conscience, to your sense of justice, and to your abiding duty to the people of this Republic. Do not let their voice be silenced.

"We expect you as President of our Republic to discharge your duty to protect the Constitution of India decisively," the two-page memorandum said.

Alleging that "vote chori" has destroyed the very foundation of our democracy, they said they had incontrovertible proof that theft of votes has taken place in election after election and cited the examples of Haryana, Maharashtra, MP, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal.

"Democracy is being murdered in broad daylight. This is a crime against the nation and the Chief Election Commissioner has blatantly cheated and lied to the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India to cover up this crime," the INDIA bloc parties said.

"We urge you, as the constitutional Head of the Republic, to take cognisance of this grave situation and use your good offices to ensure that the following demands are addressed without delay," they said.

The INDIA bloc MPs earlier met in the Central hall of Samvidhan Sadan, where they deliberated on a memorandum to be submitted to the President and finalised it.

They then moved from Parliament House to Vijay Chowk, where they were stopped by the police which had put up barricades. They were carrying a big "Save Democracy" banner and raised slogans against the government, the prime minister and the CEC.

As senior leaders met the president, the MPs continued to raise slogans at Vijay Chowk.

Chief ministers D K Shivakumar (Karnataka) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), besides Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, besides other INDIA bloc leaders attended the meeting in Parliament House and later marched in procession.

The opposition grouping has taken to the streets since Tuesday, when they first marched from Parliament to Election Commission but were stopped on the way, with Rahul Gandhi staging an eight-hour sit-in inside Akashvani Bhawan complex.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.