Guwahati: Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi and several senior party functionaries were detained on Friday while marching towards chief electoral officer’s office to protest against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and demand his resignation.Congress took out the march from its state headquarters, Rajiv Bhawan. Police put up barricades to stop the protesters and detained Gogoi and others after they attempted to cross them.The protesters raised slogans against BJP and ECI, including “BJP go back” and “arrest Gyanesh Kumar”.In a video message, Gogoi said the party took a “democratic step” to register its protest over what it described as an attack on democracy.“If they (BJP) think that by detaining us they can silence us, they are mistaken. It appears that BJP is scared,” Gogoi said, adding that Congress would continue its campaign against the ruling party.Gogoi demanded Kumar’s resignation and legal action over what he alleged were irregularities in ECI’s functioning.“Today, as people have come to know that Gyanesh Kumar Ji has committed a crime and committed an act of treason, he should resign, and legal action should be taken against him,” he said.The protest came amid a political row over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Congress said objections reportedly raised by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over SIR procedures vindicated Rahul Gandhi’s concerns about the electoral machinery. It also alleged that the electoral process was being manipulated to benefit BJP.Congress spokesperson Bedabrata Bora alleged that the leaders were “forcefully arrested” and described the police action as a threat to democracy.
