Hyderabad: Leaders of Congress and other constituents of the INDIA Bloc were detained in Hyderabad on Thursday as they tried to march towards Lok Bhavan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged irregularities in Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Telangana Congress President Mahesh Kumar Goud, MLC Kodandaram, CPI MLA and party’s state Secretary Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao, CPI-M state Secretary John Wesley, were among those detained by police as they tried to break the police cordon and proceed towards Lok Bhavan, the official residence of the Governor.
Several Telangana ministers and leaders and workers of the ruling Congress, CPI, CPI-M and other parties participated in the ‘Save Democracy’ march. Ministers Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, Sridhar Babu, Adluri Laxman Kumar, Vakati Srihari, and Mohammed Azharuddin participated in the protest. The protestors gathered at the Indira Gandhi statue on Necklace Road and marched to Lok Bhavan. They were holding flags of their respective parties and raising slogans against the CEC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some of the banners carried by the participants read ‘Desh Drohi’, ‘Gyanesh, It’s done Bro’, ‘Vote Chor Gyanesh Kumar’, and ‘Impeach Gyanesh Kumar’. The rally was stopped at Khairatabad crossroads as police erected a barricade to block the Lok Bhavan Road. A large number of police personnel were deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
As the protestors tried to remove barricades to proceed towards Lok Bhavan, the police detained them. Goud was among those whisked away in police vehicles. He told media that they were condemning the manner in which Narendra Modi government was acting against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, MP Priyanka Gandhi and others protesting in Delhi. He alleged that the Modi government was indulging in ‘Vote Chori’ and undermining the Constitutional bodies. “This is a fascist approach. People will continue their protest to remove such fascist leaders from power,” he said. He alleged that after Bihar and West Bengal, Telangana is the next target of BJP’s ‘Vote Chori’. He claimed that attempts are being made to delete 93 lakh out of 3.5 crore voters in Telangana. Goud also alleged that BJP was resorting to ‘Vote Chori’ in Telangana in collusion with the BRS. –