Hyderabad: Scores of people joined a protest at Indira Park on Saturday demanding the scrapping of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Representatives of more than a dozen civil society groups, including the Cockroach Janta Party, also sought the repeal of the CEC Act, 2023, and called for measures to safeguard electoral integrity.
Addressing the gathering, actor Prakash Raj demanded the immediate cancellation of the SIR and criticised Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
He urged the Supreme Court to intervene and seek internal files and communications of the Chief Election Commissioner dating back to 2023.
Prakash Raj said he had undertaken a 10-day study across 23 districts in Karnataka and inspected 100 polling booths.
He alleged that he found several instances in which Adivasis, labourers and slum dwellers had been removed from electoral rolls.
He described the campaign as a fight against what he called the “murder of democracy”.
Professor Kancha Ilaiah alleged that voters opposed to the BJP were being removed from electoral rolls.
Recalling the Emergency period, he said the Election Commission had remained independent and facilitated the transfer of power after the Janata Party’s victory in 1977.
He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of seeking to remain in power while, in his view, compromising the electoral process.
Professor G. Haragopal alleged that those at the helm of affairs at the national level belonged to an ideological tradition that had historically opposed the Constitution and democracy.
He accused the government of weakening democratic institutions, including the Election Commission.
Dr Shaik Mohammed Osman, general secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), called for a united campaign against what he described as the disenfranchisement of citizens.
He said participating organisations would continue their campaign to press the Election Commission to scrap the SIR.
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