New Delhi, Oct. 12 -- Opposition grouping INDIA bloc stalwarts, led by the Congress, took out their "March for Democracy'' to the Supreme Court on Monday, joined by thousands of party activists, workers and supporters. They filed a joint petition against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls and alleged poll irregularities.

The march, through a heavily barricaded route began from Barakhamba Road in Connaught Place, marked the stepped up campaign of the Congress and opposition parties after a series of street protests over the "vote chori" charge and removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Earlier, addressing a press conference, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said "all protests (against CEC Gyanesh Kumar) are part of just one protest."

Gandhi said: "There are no parallel protests, there is one protest. We do not care who you are, which formation you come from. If you are protecting the Constitution, as we are, we are with you, we will support you.''

The "Chalo Delhi" protest witnessed a major show of Opposition unity, with almost the entire top leadership of the INDIA bloc taking part - from Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC's Mamata Banerjee, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, CPI(M)'s M A Baby and NCP-SCP leader Supriya Sule.

As police stopped the march at Bhagwan Dass Road, several leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Tejashwi Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, climbed atop a vehicle and the procession moved forward after crossing the barricades, as supporters cheered and waved flags.

In a charged atmosphere, leaders and their supporters raised slogans against the government, CEC Kumar and asserted that "vote chori" and SIR exercise would not be allowed.

A large number of supporters had already reached the Barakhamba Road junction at Connaught Place, from where they marched a few kilometres towards the Supreme Court with Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the protesters along with AISA chief Neha Bora.

Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut, CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya and IUML leader E T Mohammed Basheer were among those present, besides Congress chief ministers from Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana -- D K Shivakumar, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and A Revanth Reddy.

Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot and Mukul Wasnik and TMC leader Sagarika Ghosh joined the protest, besides activists Yogendra Yadav and Nandita Narayan.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the Congress, announced the decision to march along with other INDIA bloc leaders to the Supreme Court and file the petition against the poll panel chief and "vote chori", after the Chief Justice of India declined a request for meeting the LoPs.

He also asked the CEC to "turn approver" and resign as the Opposition's fight was against the bigger powers that were behind him. "Resign, turn approver; you (Kumar) have made a mistake, but you are not the mind behind the mistake," he said.

"We know Gyanesh Kumar is unable to sleep at night; I am telling him directly, 'you will not survive as CEC'", he said.

Gandhi said "all protests (against CEC Gyanesh Kumar) are part of just one protest." He said: "There are no parallel protests, there is one protest. We do not care who you are, which formation you come from. If you are protecting the Constitution, as we are, we are with you, we will support you.''

Noting that there was resistance earlier too but it had not spilled over the streets in the form of protests, the former Congress president said this fight is not going to stop and will continue even if it takes days or years.

Gandhi also claimed that 200 officers of the government were in "touch with them" and providing them with information.

The Congress said democracy no longer mattered to those in power and that it was all a matter of "demokursi" and was a definite sign of "panic".

The petition against the Election Commission challenges the validity of the SIR and alleges large-scale voter deletions and irregularities.

The Public Interest Litigation, filed by Rahul Gandhi and signed by 10 other Opposition leaders, has sought a declaration that the decision to conduct the SIR was invalid, alleging that the poll body's move amounted to a colourable exercise of power. The petition also raises concerns over alleged curbs on peaceful demonstrations.

Among the 10 directives sought by the petition are directive to produce all records related to the SIR, ECINET and ERONET, examination of the Constitutional validity of SIR decision, action against responsible officials for any violation of constitutional or statutory provisions, directive to align online Form-6 with prescribed rules, demand for an audit by an independent committee regarding the deletion of names from electoral rolls during the SIR, directive to make public names and reasons for deletion of voters, directive not to delete any voter's name without notice and hearing and demand for interim stay on ongoing SIR process.

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