Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi detained during protest against CEC

• Gaurav Gogoi and several senior Congress leaders were detained while marching towards the chief electoral officer’s office in Guwahati

• The protesters planned to burn an effigy of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and accused the BJP-led government of undermining democracy

• Congress cited a report on objections by two election commissioners to SIR-related decisions, while the EC said all decisions were unanimous

Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi and several senior party leaders were detained on Friday, 25 September after they attempted to cross police barricades during a protest demanding the removal of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, police said.

The Congress leaders had marched from the party’s state headquarters Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati and were headed towards the office of the chief electoral officer, where they planned to burn an effigy of Kumar.

Police had erected barricades near Rajiv Bhawan to stop the protesters from proceeding further. Gogoi and other leaders attempted to cross the barricades, following which they were detained and taken by bus to the 4th Assam Police Battalion.

In a video released by the Congress, Gogoi said the protest was a "democratic step" and that the party had planned to reach the CEO’s office to "express our concern against the attack on Indian democracy".

"But the police stopped us and detained us," he said. "If they (the BJP) think that by detaining us they can silence us, then they are mistaken. It appears that the BJP is now scared. The Congress will continue to fight to save Indian democracy. We will remove the BJP and save the nation."

The detained leaders were heard raising slogans against the BJP and the CEC, including 'BJP go back' and 'arrest Gyanesh Kumar'.

Congress spokesperson Bedabrata Bora alleged that the leaders were "forcefully arrested" and described the action as "yet another threat to democracy".

"The brutality displayed by the police during the demonstration to burn an effigy of Kumar is not only deplorable but also concrete proof of the current government's miserable failure on all fronts," he said.

Among those detained were All India Congress Committee secretary Manoj Chauhan, Seva Dal president Deep Bayan and Assam Pradesh Congress Committee general-secretary Udit Bhanu Das, along with several other party workers.

The protest came amid a continuing political row over the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

An Indian Express report published on Wednesday claimed that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions linked to SIR, including those concerning voter deletions and electoral roll data.

The Election Commission, however, has maintained that decisions relating to the SIR process were taken unanimously and with the approval of all three commissioners.

The Congress said the reported objections vindicated concerns repeatedly raised by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the party over the functioning of the electoral process. It alleged that the electoral machinery was being "captured and manipulated" to give the ruling BJP an "unfair advantage".

The allegations have been rejected by the Election Commission, which has maintained that its decisions on the SIR exercise were taken collectively by the three-member commission.

With PTI inputs