MAPUSA
AICC in-charge for Goa Manikrao Thakare on Monday alleged that the names of around 1.28 lakh voters had been illegally and wrongly removed from the electoral roll through the SIR process in Goa.
“This anti-democratic malpractice is taking place under the leadership of Election Commissioner Dnyanesh Kumar,” Thakare alleged, as State Congress leaders and activists protested outside the government complex in Mapusa and demanded the resignation of Kumar.
The protesters raised slogans against the Central government, BJP and the Election Commission.
Speaking during the ‘Goy Rakhonn Yatra’, Thakare criticised the Election Commission and said Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s fundamental right to one vote, guaranteed to every citizen by the Constitution, was being taken away by the BJP by controlling constitutional institutions.
Congress speakers accused the Central government of taking away the rights of crores of voters across the country and warned that the Congress would fight at any cost to protect voters’ rights.
Those present at the ‘Goy Rakhonn Yatra’ included Dr Anjali Nibalkar, Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao, MLA Altone D’Costa, GPCC president Girish Chodankar, women’s state president Dr Pratiksha Khalap, Amarnath Panjikar, Sunil Kavthankar, Vijay Bhike, Sudhir Kandolkar, Shashank Narvekar, Himanshu Tivarekar, Pramod Salgaonkar, Gurudas Natekar, Rajan Ghate, Archit Naik, Sanjay Barde, Rahul Mhambre and Subhash Narvekar.
