Delhi police intervened on Tuesday night to disperse a protest led by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and a group of Members of Parliament demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Video footage that spread on social media showed officers dragging Gandhi onto a police bus and preventing him from exiting through a window, an incident that underscored the escalating standoff between the opposition and the Election Commission.
Police action and detention of lawmakers
The demonstration began after Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other MPs were stopped while marching toward the Election Commission’s headquarters. The protesters then occupied a nearby building for the remainder of the day. Police later barricaded roads linking the parliament to the commission’s office, deployed officers equipped with batons and body‑camera gear, and positioned themselves in numbers that outnumbered the demonstrators.
According to police official Manjeet Sheoran, cited by the BBC, a number of MPs who attempted alternate routes to reach the commission were intercepted in the afternoon. “They were picked up in buses and taken to different police stations,” Sheoran said. The Gandhi siblings were also taken away in a police bus but were released shortly thereafter. After their release they resumed their march before establishing a sit‑in at Akashvani Bhavan, the broadcasting house adjacent to the Election Commission headquarters.
Police did not disclose the exact number of lawmakers detained, though the opposition claimed that 237 MPs from multiple parties participated in the march. A police complaint was registered against the Gandhis for entering Akashvani Bhavan without permission, according to the PTI news agency. The police statement, reported by ANI, framed the removal of protesters as a measure to “maintain law and order and prevent the situation from escalating.”
Background to the voter‑roll controversy
The protest centers on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an exercise that began in Bihar in June 2025 and has since expanded to other states. The Election Commission says the SIR aims to delete duplicate and ineligible entries from voter lists, reporting that more than 130 million names have been removed from draft voter lists nationwide.
Opposition parties and activists argue that the revision has wrongly excluded eligible voters and allege procedural improprieties. Their concerns intensified after an Indian Express investigation revealed that two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally objected at least 14 times over a ten‑month period. The objections related to additions and deletions on voter rolls, access to the voter database, and the security of electoral data. The three‑member commission, which includes the CEC and the two commissioners, defended its process, stating that differing views are part of normal institutional functioning and that final decisions were taken unanimously.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined three “non‑negotiable” demands: the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, the cancellation of the SIR exercise, and a return to paper‑ballot voting. Rahul Gandhi echoed the demand on social media, tweeting, “Gyanesh, it’s done, bro. Time to resign.”
Political and legal reactions
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) condemned the protests, with party MP Sambit Patra describing them as a “sponsored attempt” to destabilise the government through “anarchy.” Patra accused opposition parties of seeking to undermine constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission.
The controversy has also reached the Supreme Court of India. The court has asked both the federal government and the Election Commission to respond to a petition alleging that CEC Kumar made key decisions without the approval of the two other election commissioners. The petition highlights concerns about the concentration of decision‑making authority within the commission.
Four days before the Delhi protest, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a Gen‑Z‑led satirical movement, organized demonstrations in Mumbai and Delhi demanding the CEC’s resignation. The CJP described those actions as the start of a nationwide campaign and announced plans for further protests on 10 October.
As the standoff continues, the opposition maintains that it seeks only a dialogue with the Election Commission. Gandhi told reporters earlier in the day, “We are all opposition MPs… and we just want to speak with them. I do not know why the Election Commission does not want to talk to us.” The commission, however, has indicated that any meeting must be requested by a party representative and would take place at the commission’s premises, not at the parliament.
The events of Tuesday illustrate a deepening political rift over the integrity of India’s electoral rolls and the perceived independence of the Election Commission. With legal challenges pending before the Supreme Court and further protests planned by both opposition lawmakers and activist groups, the issue is poised to remain a focal point of national debate in the weeks ahead.
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