Nagpur Congress holds rallies and padyatras alleging voter deletions in SIR

The Nagpur city district Congress committee held a 'Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao' campaign. The party alleges that eligible voters' names have been struck off the electoral rolls through the Election Commission's allegedly dictatorial style of functioning and the SIR exercise. A rally and padyatra were taken out in the city in protest.

Sirivella Prasad, in charge of the state Congress committee, joined the rally. It was led by city president Praful Gudadhe and state vice-president Girish Pandav.

A 'Samvidhan Jagar' bike rally was held in South Nagpur, led by Ramesh Thakre, president of Block No. 6, and Gautam Ganar, president of Block No. 7. The rally ended at the Mahakalkar Sabhagar in Dattatraya Nagar, after garlanding of the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at Trisharan Chowk in Rameshwari.

Earlier, on the occasion of Dhammachakra Pravartan Din, Prasad visited the sacred Deekshabhoomi, where he paid tribute to Gautam Buddha and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Nitin Raut and several other prominent Congress leaders and office-bearers were present.

In Central Nagpur, a padyatra was taken out against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar under the leadership of Rizwan Ansari. Sirivella Prasad, Praful Gudadhe, Vijay Sartakar, Usha Kharbikar, Krunal Maurdakar, Altaf Ansari, Ravi Parate, Anil Machhale, Mahesh Shrivas, Waqar Hanif, Shahnawaz Akhtar, Nakil Ahmed, Zulfikar Bhutto, Atiq Qureshi, Ayush Raut, Shakil Ansari and Razamil Ansari were among a large number of workers who took part.

The campaign also drew wide public support in North Nagpur and West Nagpur, where local Congress workers went door to door asking people to check the status of their names on the electoral roll.

Congress leaders alleged that the names of opposition supporters are being deliberately removed from the rolls under a set strategy. They said this would not be tolerated at any cost and that protests would be held across the state by democratic means.

Speakers at the meetings sharply criticised the policies of the Centre and the Election Commission. They warned that if the names of eligible voters were not restored to the rolls, the Congress would be forced to gherao Election Commission offices. At the end, all workers together pledged to protect the Constitution and to contest the coming elections with full strength.