Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday expressed gratitude to those who joined the INDIA bloc's march to the Supreme Court over alleged poll irregularities, asserting that the government cannot intimidate the people of the country.
"Today was a very important day because we needed to show the government that the people of India are not going to be intimidated. You cannot beat us, threaten us, frighten us. We will not accept being bullied.
I was wondering where the cowards of the RSS who were beating the young children day before yesterday were. Where were those people? Because I didn’t see them," said Gandhi in a post on X.
"When we are standing there and when the people of India are standing there, why don’t you come out? Why don’t you wear your little scarves and come out and see what happens? Because you’re essentially, like the Prime Minister of India, bullies. You cannot stand up. You can only use power to fight," the LoP added.
Opposition stalwarts, along with hundreds of supporters and activists, undertook their "March for Democracy" to the Supreme Court on Monday on a heavily barricaded route and filed a joint petition against SIR and alleged poll irregularities, in another show of strength after a series of street protests over the "vote chori" charge.
Leaders of Opposition (LoPs) in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, CPI's D Raja, CPI-M leader M A Baby, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, besides NCP-SCP leader Supriya Sule, were among those who joined the march.
A day after the Chief Justice of India declined a request for a meeting with the LoPs on the issue, saying the matter is sub judice, the opposition leaders filed the joint plea in the apex court over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The opposition leaders had said they wanted to hand over a memorandum to the CJI demanding an end to vote chori, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, halting of the SIR of electoral rolls and switching back to the paper ballot format.
As police stopped the march at Bhagwan Dass Road, several leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Tejashwi Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, climbed atop a vehicle and the procession moved forward after crossing the barricades, as supporters cheered and waved flags.
In a charged atmosphere, leaders and their supporters raised slogans against the government, CEC Kumar and asserted that "vote chori" and SIR exercise would not be allowed.
A large number of supporters had already reached the Barakhamba Road junction at Connaught Place, from where they marched a few kilometres towards the Supreme Court with Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the protesters along with AISA chief Neha Bora.
Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut, CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya and IUML leader E T Mohammed Basheer were among those present, besides Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy (all from Congress).
Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot and Mukul Wasnik and TMC leader Sagarika Ghosh joined the protest, besides activists Yogendra Yadav and Nandita Narayan.
The INDIA bloc leaders, along with a large number of supporters and activists, earlier converged at the Constitution Club and headed towards Barakhamba Road junction to join the march to the Supreme Court in four air-conditioned buses.
They slowly headed towards Barakhamba Road junction, from where they started their march to the Supreme Court, to highlight the issue of "vote chori" and against the prohibitory measures imposed by the government to stop them from holding demonstrations.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference, announced the decision to march along with other INDIA bloc leaders to the Supreme Court and file the petition against the poll panel chief and "vote chori", after the Chief Justice of India declined a request for meeting the LoPs.
Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the Congress, he also asked the CEC to "turn approver" and resign as the opposition's fight was against the bigger powers that were behind him.
"Resign, turn approver; you (Kumar) have made a mistake, but you are not the mind behind the mistake," he said.
"We know Gyanesh Kumar is unable to sleep at night; I am telling him directly, 'you will not survive as CEC'", he said.
Noting that there was resistance earlier too but it had not spilled over the streets in the form of protests, the former Congress president said this fight is not going to stop and will continue even if it takes days or years.
People should continue with the protests as the country cannot be saved in a day or two, he said, while describing the current protests as "tandav".
"This is like Shiva's dance and anyone can join Shiva's 'baraat' (wedding procession)," he said.
Gandhi also claimed that 200 officers of the government were in "touch with them" and providing them with information.
The opposition march started after Delhi Police denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated site for protests and named three new spots for holding such demonstrations.
The Congress said democracy no longer mattered to those in power and that it was all a matter of "demokursi" and was a definite sign of "panic".
Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar issued a standing order on October 11, naming Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in east Delhi as the new designated sites for protests and demonstrations.
Opposition parties have been protesting since last Tuesday demanding the immediate removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and accusing the prime minister and the BJP of "stealing" elections through "vote theft".
INDIA bloc leaders took to the streets on Tuesday when they first marched from Parliament to the Election Commission but were stopped on the way, with Rahul Gandhi staging an eight-hour sit-in inside Akashvani Bhawan complex. They later tried to protest at Jantar Mantar but were stopped by the police and forcibly removed and the next day they marched to Rajghat.
The opposition's aggressive push comes days after a report claimed internal differences within the poll body, with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objecting on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months, including on SIR.