Mamata, Kejriwal among Oppn leaders detained amid protests against CEC

New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Several opposition leaders, including former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, AAP national convener and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and former Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, were on Saturday detained by the police while attempting to join the protest, called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in the national capital, against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. 

Mamata Banerjee was detained along with several MPs of the All India Trinamool Congress (Mamata faction) from South Avenue in central Delhi, where she sat in protest at a bus stand after being stopped by police.

Banerjee and five of her party MPs, including Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, were detained and taken away in a police bus. The former West Bengal CM sat with a band-aid on her mouth during the protest.

"The government is misbehaving with us," Banerjee said in a video statement from inside the police bus, adding, "We, the INDIA bloc, will continue to fight to strengthen people's voice."

Arvind Kejriwal, whose residence had been surrounded by Delhi Police since morning, was also detained as soon as he tried to step out to join the protest.

Speaking to reporters before being detained, Kejriwal said, "...There are police personnel and paramilitary forces everywhere. People are not being allowed to leave their homes...The police are picking people up as they walk on the streets. No one is being allowed to go anywhere. They have created an atmosphere of authoritarianism across the country. Why?... They want to suppress this issue of 'vote chori' and continue doing it. But the people of this country will not allow this to happen."

"The youth of the country have risen. Today, CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurabh Das, along with Dhruv Rathee, Ratna Singh and others, have been detained. The youth of the country are very angry. I request people to come to Delhi however they can to stop this vote chori; otherwise this country and this democracy won't be saved."

Former Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI-M MP John Brittas were among those detained by police and taken to the detention centre at Chhatrasal Stadium.

CPI-M General Secretary M.A. Baby was also detained.

Earlier in the day, CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained by the police from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi while on their way to Jantar Mantar to stage a protest, demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

--IANS

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