New Delhi: While addressing a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday (October 7) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh announced that the party workers will gather for a protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in the state capital on Friday (October 9).In a press note issued by the party, Singh, who is also the AAP’s UP in-charge was quoted as saying: “It is not Lord Ganesh giving its blessings to BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), rather the party seems to have been blessed by Lankesh, since vote chori and attempts at making a government fall are actions inspired by Ravana like tendency. Gyanesh Kumar is working for the BJP.”According to a report in the Times of India, while invoking the demand by the Opposition seeking use of ballot papers for conducting elections, Sanjay Singh also told reporters, “If PM Narendra Modi is so popular then what is he scared of? He should win through ballot paper voting like he wins through EVMs.” Samajwadi Party workers protest against chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi. Photo: By arrangementOn Thursday (October 8), Samajwadi Party (SP) workers organised a public protest march in Varanasi from Shastri Ghat to the district headquarters, with SP workers demonstrating vigorously in support of the party’s concerns regarding the voter list and the electoral process. The party demanded accountability and resignation of CEC Kumar.During the march, the protesters also burned a symbolic effigy of CEC Kumar and registered their protest by breaking a “paap ka ghada (pot of sin of vote theft).”Earlier, as reported by The Wire, on October 2, a protest march was organised by student activists and members of the civil society at Lucknow’s Parivartan Chowk demanding resignation of the CEC over discrepancies related to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls following a major expose by the Indian Express revealing that Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded at least 14 objections in the last 10 months to decisions and orders concerning the SIR of electoral rolls. As reported by the Press Trust of India, the ancestral home of CEC Kumar in Agra, meanwhile witnessed a shuddhikaran (purification) ceremony following protests by Congress workers during which some objectionable remarks were reportedly painted outside his house.Protests against CEC have also resulted in FIRs in at least two districts of UP as per a recent report in Prabhat Khabar. While in Kanpur dehat area, an FIR has been registered against SP district president Babulal Raja and 36 others along with 200 unknown persons, UP police have filed a second FIR against eleven SP workers in Fatehpur district for burning an effigy of the CEC.