NEW DELHI: The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) on Monday staged a protest at Jantar Mantar here, alleging “systematic vote rigging” and raised slogans of “Vote Chor, Gaddi Chod.” Led by its national president Uday Bhanu Chib, the protesters later attempted to march towards Parliament as part of a ‘Parliament Gherao’ call, following which over 20 IYC workers were detained, police sources said. “We have detained at least 20 protesters as preventive detention to maintain law and order,” a police source said. Addressing the gathering, Chib alleged that the BJP-RSS and the Election Commission were stealing the people’s mandate and claimed that vote rigging amounted to an attack on the Constitution. He further alleged that Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi were working in collusion with the BJP and claimed that a law was changed to protect them from legal action. Clause 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 grants immunity to the CEC and ECs from any legal action for decisions taken while in office.
