Bhubaneswar, October 6 (Daily Kiran) : The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has announced its participation in a protest march in New Delhi scheduled for Tuesday. This demonstration is aimed at opposing the alleged arbitrary decisions made by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, particularly concerning the ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR) of the voter list, which has reportedly resulted in the removal of over 13 million voters nationwide.
Manas Mangraj, the leader of the BJD parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, confirmed that the party’s MPs will join the march under the direction of BJD chief and Leader of the Opposition, Naveen Patnaik. Mangraj has previously called for Kumar’s resignation due to his controversial role in the SIR process, which has raised serious concerns after more than 2 million voters were reportedly removed from the rolls in Odisha alone.
The situation has intensified following an incident in Dhamnagar, where 227 votes belonging to members of the minority community were allegedly deleted without the knowledge of the Block Level Officer (BLO). This has led to significant doubts about the fairness of the SIR process. Mangraj stated that thousands of voters in the Dhamnagar assembly constituency have had their names removed from the voter list.
Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the Chief Electoral Officer’s voluntary retirement application, which has further fueled skepticism. Mangraj pointed out that comments from the Supreme Court regarding changes to Form 6 have cast doubt on previous directives from the Election Commission, which the court clarified it did not issue.
He emphasized that the BJD maintains equal distance from both the INDIA bloc and the NDA. However, as a responsible political party committed to upholding democratic institutions and the integrity of the electoral process, the BJD feels it must participate in the upcoming protest.
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