In Guwahati on September 25, police detained a group of Congress leaders who were marching to protest alleged irregularities within the Election Commission of India. The protest, organized by the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), was intended to move from the party’s headquarters at Rajiv Bhawan to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office at Janata Bhawan, Dispur.
Party sources said the marchers faced high‑handedness from police and were forcefully arrested while staging the demonstration. The detained leaders include APCC president and MP Gaurav Gogoi, AICC secretary Manoj Chauhan, Seva Dal President Deep Bayan, APCC general secretary Udit Bhanu Das, and party members Bidisha Neog, Mousumi Neog, Tazika Parbin, Mainajan Begum, Shantanu Bora, Golam Mustaque Osmani, Ankur Raj Gogoi and Anwar Hussain.
APCC media department chairman Bedabrat Bora released a statement condemning the arrests. He described the police action as “yet another threat to democracy” and accused the officers of brutality, citing a demonstration that included burning an effigy of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom he called a “patron of a Hitlerian regime.”
The Congress leaders demanded the immediate arrest and removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and called for an independent, high‑level review of all changes made to the electoral rolls during his tenure. They noted that the other two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally recorded written objections on at least 14 occasions in the past ten months regarding decisions on the Special Intensive Revision, voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, amendments to Form 6, and centralisation of the Commission’s electoral roll IT systems.
The opposition party plans to hold similar protest marches across all district collector offices in the state on September 28.
