Anti-CEC protests LIVE: ‘Har gali mein Jantar Mantar’ march scheduled today; Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora invited

Anti-CEC protests LIVE: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders have been invited to join a march on Friday, organised by People Against SIR – a week-old alliance of students, farmers and civil society groups — from Bangla Sahib Gurdwara in Delhi's Connaught Place to the Election Commission’s office near Patel Chowk. The march has been called to "restore democracy", demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and press for the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.Among the prominent figures invited include CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, actor Prakash Raj, student leaders Neha Bora and Aishe Ghosh, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and activist Tushar Gandhi.‘Har Gali mein Jantar Mantar’"The People's March to Reclaim Democracy will not request police permission anywhere," the platform had said in a statement on October 18.It also warned the police, paramilitary personnel and prison authorities against using force on peaceful protesters.The platform has planned a “No SIR” campaign under the slogan “Har Gali Jantar Mantar, Har Gaon Jantar Mantar, Mera Ghar Jantar Mantar”.The People Against SIR group was formed on October 14 at Surjeet Bhavan in New Delhi by groups representing farmers, workers, women, students, Adivasis, Dalits and minorities.The platform has alleged that the SIR exercise is illegal and demanded that the voter lists be reset to their pre-2024 version and updated through social audits as laid down in the Election Commission Manual and CAG guidelines.CJP's Ranka, Das likely to get fresh summons todayCockroach Janta Party co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka will be issued fresh notice to join the police probe in the two cases against them after they failed to appear earlier, officials aware of the matter told HT.A senior police officer said that the Delhi Police crime branch had issued a notice to Das, Ranka, and CJP member Ajinkya Shinde to join the probe on Thursday.Why CEC Gyanesh Kumar is under fireCEC Kumar is at the centre of a controversy involving the Election Commission following an investigative report by The Indian Express that claimed Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months regarding decisions and procedures linked to the SIR exercise.The Election Commission has rejected these allegations, saying that major decisions, including the SIR of electoral rolls, had been taken unanimously by the full commission.RTI reveals Cabinet Secretariat sent election commissioners’ letters to CECThe Cabinet Secretariat forwarded the letters written to the Cabinet Secretary by election commissioners Sukhbir Sandhu and Vivek Joshi about the alleged misconduct of senior deputy election commissioner (DEC) Maneesh Garg to the office of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, in addition to sending them to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), according to information obtained through a Right to Information (RTI) application.A document released in response to the application shows that on August 3, the secretariat proposed seeking CEC Kumar's opinion on the letters.

Another, on August 4, noted that the letters from the commissioners were in their individual capacity and not a formal communication from the Election Commission of India. The only response to the two commissioners was an acknowledgement that their letters had been received. The acknowledgements dated August 5 were copied to the secretary, department of personnel and training (DoPT), the establishment officer in DoPT, and the principal private secretary to the chief election commissioner.