Bengaluru: A protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was held at Freedom Park in Bengaluru, where CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and actor Prakash Raj addressed the gathering.
Dipke described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “murderer of democracy” and alleged that the Election Commission was involved in “vote theft” by deleting names from electoral rolls.
He alleged that the SIR exercise was being used to target voters who do not support the BJP and claimed that large numbers of names had been deleted across the country.
Rathee said his purpose was not to seek a change of government but to defend every citizen’s right to vote.
Questioning the transparency and accountability of the Election Commission, Rathee demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and cited voter-list issues reported in West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Goa.
He said the issue was not about any particular political party, but about protecting the voting rights of every citizen, including those who support the BJP.
Prakash Raj demanded that the SIR exercise be scrapped, alleging that voters from tribal, poor, Muslim and other minority communities had been affected.
He said the campaign should not be limited to seeking the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, but should continue until the SIR process is withdrawn and voting rights are protected.
The protest witnessed slogans including “Vote chor, gaddi chhod” and “Gyanesh, it’s your turn”, with protesters vowing to continue their campaign in defence of democracy and the right to vote.