Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab on Saturday stood firmly with the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest in Chandigarh, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged vote-chori, with senior AAP leader and Punjab Prabhari Manish Sisodia, Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and several other party leaders detained by Chandigarh Police.
Raising the slogan “Vote Choro, Kursi Chhodo”, AAP leaders and workers mounted a strong protest against the BJP-led Centre, with Manish Sisodia declaring that Narendra Modi is afraid of the country’s youth because the BJP could not win elections honestly, while Harpal Singh Cheema asserted that Punjab’s youth would not be intimidated and would continue to defend democracy, the Constitution and the people’s right to vote.
Addressing the protesters, Sisodia alleged “Modi government is deploying the entire police machinery to prevent young people from reaching Jantar Mantar and demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar. The government had created an atmosphere of fear by detaining young people, lawyers and other citizens seeking to exercise their democratic rights.”
The AAP Punjab Prabhari said “The government is using the police to stop young people from raising their voices against vote theft. People are being detained and sent to jail simply for demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner. The situation is so alarming that even during the Emergency, we did not witness such conditions.”
Questioning the BJP’s confidence in its electoral victories, he said the government was afraid of young people because its mandate was being challenged. “If Narendra Modi were genuinely popular and had won elections honestly, he would not be afraid of a few young people sitting at Jantar Mantar. But the Prime Minister is afraid because he has become Prime Minister by stealing votes, deleting genuine voters and adding fake votes,” he said.
Welcoming the participation of young people in Punjab and Chandigarh, Manish Sisodia said their decision to raise their voices against alleged electoral manipulation demonstrated that the country’s youth would not be intimidated by the BJP government. “I am here to support the CJP’s protest on behalf of the AAP, Arvind Kejriwal and CM Bhagwant Singh Mann. Our demand is clear: Gyanesh Kumar must resign. Gyanesh Kumar is a traitor. Vote thieves must leave their positions. ‘Vote Choro, Kursi Chhodo’.” he said, asserting that the youth had taken to the streets to defend the sanctity of the people’s mandate.
Meanwhile, senior AAP leader and Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema also condemned the BJP government, saying that young people and citizens from every section of society were standing against vote theft. “The country is being pushed towards an Emergency-like situation, with Delhi resembling a police cantonment and extensive police deployment in Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh aimed at preventing protests,” he added.
Cheema said young people travelling from different parts of the country and abroad to defend democracy were being detained and jailed instead of being allowed to exercise their fundamental democratic rights. “The BJP government has adopted authoritarian methods and said the crackdown on protesters represented an attack on democratic freedoms. The youth of this country will succeed, and Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign because he stole votes for Narendra Modi,” Harpal Singh Cheema said, expressing confidence that the movement against vote theft would prevail.