Putting up a united front, Punjab Congress leaders – barring former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi – on Friday participated in a protest at Sector 17 against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.The party’s Punjab affairs in-charge, Sachin Pilot, could not make it to the protest as he was in Rajatshan. Channi, meanwhile, also cited a prior commitment for missing the march.The protest, nonetheless, saw senior leaders including Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Raja Warring, former Speaker Rana KP Singh, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawaa, MLAs Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Rana Gurjeet Singh, Pargat Singh, Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon, Rana Gurjeet Singh, AICC co-treasurer Vijay Inder Singla march towards the office of the Punjab Election Commission. They were stopped by the police and taken into preventive custody.Speaking at the protest, Warring said new evidence suggesting that the CEC was colluding with the BJP to rig elections was coming out every day. “This has never happened in the history of our country. What is celebrated as an electoral victory, is actually vote chori (theft),” he said, citing the elections in Haryana and Maharashtra.Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said Rahul Gandhi had been raising the issue of vote chori and the Election Commission’s eroding accountability for the last three years. “Despite suffering from a viral fever, I have come to participate in the protest given the seriousness of the matter,” he said, before describing the CEC as the “real vote chor”.The leader said the Congress would continue its fight to protect democracy and the Constitution. Singla, meanwhile, called for the immediate removal of the CEC and the registration of a criminal case against him. The protest is a part of the Congress’s nationwide campaign against the “subversion and sabotage” of the electoral process.