Patna: Student protesters broke through police barricades near J P Golambar in Patna on Tuesday during a march against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, demanding the scrapping of the exercise and the resignation of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.Called by Left organisations, the march drew NSUI members, the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA). Protesters waved the national flag and raised slogans against the Centre and the Election Commission.Police had barricaded the route to prevent the march from reaching Lok Bhavan. However, protesters broke through, scuffled with police personnel and moved towards Dak Bungalow. At Dak Bungalow Square, they climbed onto barricades, shouted slogans and engaged in a tug-of-war with police personnel, with some carrying away sections of the barricading.Placards carried slogans such as “Loktantra ke teen gunahgaar — Modi, Shah aur Gyanesh Kumar”, “Vote chor gaddi chhod” and “Samosa jayega tel mein, Gyanesh ko bhejo jail mein”. Another poster questioned police preparedness, asking, “Tear gas ki vyavastha nahi hai?”The protest took an unusual turn when some youths allegedly took away the keys to a vehicle transporting detained demonstrators. The detainees then escaped by opening the vehicle’s gate.Additional superintendent of police (law and order-1) Krishna Murari Prasad said 12 protesters were detained, but all later escaped. Gandhi Maidan SHO Akhilesh Kumar Mishra said nine others were detained separately and released on bond.City SP (central) Chandra Prakash and SDPO Manoj Kumar reached the spot with a police team. The demonstrators dispersed after three hours.AISA Bihar president Dhananjay demanded that the SIR exercise be scrapped, deletion of names from electoral rolls stopped and the CEC resign. He alleged the revision threatened eligible voters’ rights.NSUI state vice-president Bhagya Bharti said the protest was part of a broader fight to protect democratic institutions. “The fight to save democracy is the second freedom struggle,” she said.
