New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- The Opposition will take their protest against SIR and resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar into a bigger street-level struggle on Thursday when more Members of Parliament, including some from the Samajwadi Party, are expected to join the struggle along with civil society organisations as the debate over the electoral roll controversy turns into a political issue of credibility of the election process.

According to a senior Opposition MP, there will be an expanded mobilisation under the slogan 'India on the Ground', which clearly shows that the struggle has been taken out of Parliament and Opposition parties' ambit. The former chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is also expected to join the struggle in the coming days.

The agitation escalated when Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with other Opposition leaders, were arrested for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, following the detention of MPs' buses by Delhi Police near Jantar Mantar, making it the latest flashpoint of the ongoing confrontation over the resignation of CEC.

Earlier, the Opposition had been stopped while marching to the Election Commission headquarters premises on Tuesday, with nearly 300 MPs participating in the march. But this time, while changing their plan, the Opposition chose Jantar Mantar as the location for protests, but once again, it ended up in a confrontation as three buses of Opposition MPs were stopped near the junction of Janpath and Ashoka Road, just 100 meters away from the demonstration venue.

The Opposition criticised the police for the raid, claiming that even the protest march organised within the venue was not allowed. The Opposition once again insisted on the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and charged the Election Commission with ruining the integrity of the democratic process.

Rahul Gandhi got down from the bus and clashed with the police force as the Opposition MPs chanted slogans and climbed on the buses. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lay down on the road to protest as the protestors chanted slogans like "No vote theft, no democracy theft" and "Election Commission, not BJP Commission".

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