Ranchi: JMM cadres staged a demonstration outside Lok Bhavan here on Wednesday, demanding the immediate dismissal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for allegedly misusing his office and taking unilateral decisions.JMM general secretary Vinod Kumar Pandey alleged that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected 14 times in the past 10 months to several “arbitrary” decisions taken by Kumar.Pandey further alleged that the names of crores of eligible voters had been deleted from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) without the consent of the two Election Commissioners and despite their objections. He termed the exercise “unconstitutional, unauthorised and anti-democratic”, saying it amounted to an assault on the fairness of the electoral system.The protest was jointly organised by JMM committees from Ranchi district, Ranchi metropolitan area, Khunti, Lohardaga and Ramgarh. Several senior party functionaries and hundreds of cadres took part. Some protesters carried bows and arrows and JMM flags, while others arrived on camels.JMM Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji said genuine voters across the country were being deprived of their voting rights under the SIR exercise and were not being given adequate time or an opportunity to have their names included in electoral rolls.“ This is not fair at all, and we will continue to raise our voice against this injustice,” she said.The protesters alleged that tampering with electoral rolls deprived crores of citizens of their voting rights and undermined constitutional norms and the dignity of democratic institutions.
