Youth Congress puts up 'Vote Chor Commission' banners outside EC office

New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) on Wednesday put up banners reading 'Vote Chor Commission' outside the Election Commission (EC) office here, stepping up its protest against the poll panel and the BJP over alleged vote theft.
     However, the BJP claimed irregularities in voter registration in Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour and Kannauj parliamentary seats and asked Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee and Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav to resign from the Lok Sabha, alleging they secured victory with "vote chori".
     It accused the Congress and other opposition parties of running a campaign against the Election Commission to steal the mandate of "honest and genuine Indian citizens" while compromising national security.
     According to an official IYC statement, Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress president Akshay Lakra, along with party workers, hung the banners outside the EC headquarters and at the Gol Dak Khana intersection in the national capital.
     "The BJP is always ahead in changing names, that is why today, when democracy is being murdered in the country, the Youth Congress has changed the name of the Election Commission and put up banners of 'Vote Chor Commission'," Lakra said.
     He alleged that the right to vote is the voice of the people in democracy, which the BJP government and the Election Commission want to suppress. The Youth Congress will continue its struggle under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, "against vote theft" until the EC provides a digital voter list, he added.
     The protest came a day after the IYC organised a 'Halla Bol' march against what it termed a conspiracy of "vote chori" and "weakening democracy" by the BJP and the poll panel.
     The march was planned from the Youth Congress headquarters on Raisina Road to the EC office. However, the protesters were stopped by police and detained outside the IYC office itself.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)