The Delhi Police on Saturday permitted the Congress to hold its latest rally against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at Ramlila Maidan on November 1.
DCP Central Delhi Police Rohit Rajbir Singh explained in a press conference on Saturday that the Congress was given a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the upcoming rally after "interacting with them and understanding the security arrangements required".
Notably, Ramlila Maidan is one of three places notified by the Centre as designated protest sites after it recently de-notified Jantar Mantar, where Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders had gone anyway on October 13 to unfurl the national flag, after which they were arrested.
The other two places were CBD Ground and Burari Ground.
The Congress had first approached the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which stated that the venue would be available from October 25 to November 3, and handed them a venue availability certificate.
"We issued (the NOC) today. They will now take the certificate back to the MCD, which is the owning agency responsible for the land, and then begin their preparation," DCP Singh added.
The Delhi Police will also coordinate with the organisers, traffic police and other concerned agencies ahead of the protest to ensure that the agitation brings up no major law and order concerns.
The November 1 rally is a part of the INDIA bloc's September 30 joint action plan to combat alleged vote theft by CEC Kumar during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Apart from rallies, the bloc had also planned 'Save Democracy' marches, with Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge declaring that all INDIA bloc parties had agreed that elections should be conducted using ballot papers instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
A 10-member delegation of the INDIA bloc, led by Kharge and Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, also met with President Droupadi Murmu in an earlier protest, in which they submitted a memorandum listing their vote chori claims, and their demands that needed to be fulfilled before the anti-CEC protests could come to an end.
"In that memorandum, we clearly stated that the Prime Minister, HM Amit Shah, and CEC Gyanesh Kumar had conspired to destroy Indian democracy. The President in no way denied what we said, questioned what we said, or argued what we said," the Lok Sabha LoP said later, adding that President Murmu had also asked them to prove their claims.
However, a PTI report later said, citing sources, that his claim of President Murmu accepting the vote chori allegations were untrue.
"Unfortunate that President of India is being dragged into controversy raised by Opposition," the report added.
