Bengaluru, 11 October

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said he and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi would meet the CJI on 12 October to raise concerns over alleged suppression of democratic rights, police action against protesters and irregularities in the Election Commission.

He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of creating a situation akin to an "undeclared Emergency" in the country.

Speaking to reporters, Kharge said he had written a letter to the CJI, as had Gandhi, and they had been given a time slot between 4 pm and 5 pm on Monday for the meeting.

Claiming that Modi is scared of youth who are demanding "save democracy and save our votes", Kharge accused the PM and his government of "suppressing" citizens' rights, and asserted that the Congress would continue to fight to protect the Constitution, democracy and people's right to vote.

He alleged that the government was using the police to prevent people from participating in protests and pursuing their genuine demands, causing hardship to youths who wanted to travel for jobs, appointments, schools and colleges.

Kharge also referred to an unprecedented security clampdown and the detention of CJP protesters to thwart a planned mass mobilisation at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Saturday to press for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

"All this demonstrates that he does not want democracy to function peacefully in India," he said, taking a dig at PM Modi.

"Two members of the Election Commission have openly exposed how the Commission is functioning, what kind of irregularities are taking place in it, and what the members of the Commission themselves feel about this situation. Despite this, no action has been taken in this matter," he claimed.

"All of this is happening because they (PM and BJP government) want vote theft to continue. So far, whatever vote theft has occurred, they have been used to form governments at the Centre and in the states," he alleged.

"We will continue our fight to protect democracy and the constitutional rights of the people," he added.