The INDIA bloc held a march through central Delhi to the Supreme Court on Monday and filed a petition against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and AISA president Neha Bora led it and lawyers joined (Hindustan Times). Congress says 2.5 lakh people took part in the four-hour march, and The Hindu reports heavy police deployment but little interruption. Hindustan Times says the petition lists 10 requests, including a pause in the SIR and an independent audit of voter deletions, and accuses Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of unilateral and arbitrary use of the Commission's collective powers. The Hindu says Gandhi asks for an independent panel and for the Election Commission's records and official notings; Mint calls the filing a PIL. NDTV reports that the Court flagged 14 defects and a ₹220 shortfall. Chief Justice Surya Kant declined a meeting with the leaders and said, in open court, that protests must take place but the Court must not be dragged into them (The Hindu).
The dispute is about who may check a revision that decides who can vote. The petition moves it from the street to a court that has so far kept its distance, and the Court's answer will set how far the revision can be challenged.
If you live in Delhi, protest days can mean metro closures and traffic curbs. If your name is on an electoral roll under revision, check it on the Election Commission's portal and keep your documents ready; the petition does not stop the SIR yet.
The opposition says deletions from the rolls were sudden and unexplained, and that only an independent audit can restore trust.
The BJP says the Commission is doing a routine clean-up, and that taking political fights to the Supreme Court drags a constitutional body into theatre (The Hindu).
The march made noise; the petition decides substance. Watch whether the defects are cured, whether the Court lists the case this week, and whether it asks the Commission for its records. The turnout figure is Congress's own and should not be repeated as fact.
The Hindu · Hindustan Times · Mint · The Economic Times · NDTV · CNA (Oct 12)
Opposition marches to the Supreme Court and files a petition to pause the voter-roll revision; Congress claims 2.5 lakh took partOpposition marches to the Supreme Court and files a petition to pause the voter-roll revision; Congress claims 2.5 lakh took part
Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc asked the Court for an independent audit of voter deletions under the SIR. The Court flagged defects in the filing, and the Chief Justice has kept his distance.
The opposition took its fight over the voter-roll revision to the Supreme Court's doorstep on Monday. The INDIA bloc, the opposition alliance, walked through central Delhi in what Congress called a "March for Democracy" (The Hindu). Hindustan Times reports that Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Neha Bora, president of the student group AISA, led it, and that lawyers joined in large numbers. The Hindu says the show of unity met heavy police deployment but little interruption, and that Congress claims 2.5 lakh (250,000) people took part in the four-hour march. That figure is Congress's own, and the paper adds that most marchers were Congress supporters who had travelled from across the country. Before the march, Delhi closed six metro stations and restricted traffic on more than 20 stretches, CNA reports.
The petition targets the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Hindustan Times reports that it lists 10 requests, among them a pause in the SIR and an independent audit of voter deletions, and accuses Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of the "unilateral and arbitrary" use of the Commission's collective powers. The Hindu says Rahul Gandhi asks for an independent panel to examine the SIR and the decisions behind it, and for the Election Commission of India to hand over its records and official notings. Mint describes it as a public interest litigation (PIL). NDTV reports that the Supreme Court flagged 14 defects and a ₹220 shortfall in the filing; we have seen that from one outlet only.
The words were sharper than the paper. After the march Rahul Gandhi said "you cannot beat us, threaten us, frighten us" (The Economic Times), and likened the protest to a tandav and a "Shivji ki baraat", a wedding procession where everyone is welcome (The Hindu). BJP leaders, among them Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Anurag Thakur, called the remark "anti-Hindu" and the Congress leadership directionless (The Hindu); MP Nishikant Dubey criticised the march to the Court (NDTV). The alliance is not whole: the DMK, which has left the INDIA bloc, says it need not join Congress-led protests (The Hindu). Outside Delhi the argument rests on numbers: The Hindu reports that 13.60 lakh names were dropped from Punjab's final electoral rolls after the SIR, that Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy questioned a voter decline despite population growth, and that Akhilesh Yadav alleges the Commission acts at the BJP's behest.
The bench itself has stayed out of the street. The Hindu and Hindustan Times reported that Chief Justice Surya Kant declined the leaders' request for a meeting, and in open court he said democratic and political protests must take place but the Court must not be dragged into them, The Hindu reports. Kerala Congress removed the person behind a social-media post aimed at the Chief Justice (The Economic Times, The Hindu). Nothing we reviewed says when the petition will be listed; the defects have to be cured first.