Jharkhand: Congress Workers Gherao CEO's Office, Demand CEC Gyanesh Kumar's Resignation

Congress workers on Monday gheraoed the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) here and staged demonstrations in all district headquarters of Jharkhand demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Congress workers took out a protest march near the Old Assembly premises here, and it culminated at the CEO's office in Dhurwa.

During the march, hundreds of party workers carrying placards raised slogans such as 'Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign', and 'Shame on Gyanesh Kumar'.

"Gyanesh Kumar is acting as an agent of the BJP and is destroying the dignity of democracy. He is working to steal votes," state Congress president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh alleged while speaking to PTI.

He alleged that the EC extended "unfair" advantage to the BJP to help it secure victory in assembly polls in Bihar and West Bengal.

"Our leader Rahul Gandhi has placed evidence and facts before the entire country on how votes were stolen in Haryana and Maharashtra," Kamlesh said.

"People who have the right to vote are being deprived by the Election Commission through every possible means," he alleged.

The party demands the immediate resignation of the CEC as he has torn apart the dignity of the Constitution, the Jharkhand Congress chief said.

The Jharkhand Congress's protests came after an Indian Express report claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge, even as the national rollout of the SIR was under the supervision of the full commission.