New Delhi : The Opposition on Tuesday attempted to ratchet up pressure on chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign with an unprecedented protest in central Delhi that lasted nine hours, drawing furious responses from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
At least 300 lawmakers from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) marched from Parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI), demanding Kumar’s resignation. When police stopped them outside Nirvachan Sadan, more than 250 Opposition members were detained. However, after a brief standoff, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with 20 others, walked into the Akashvani Bhavan campus next door and continued their protest till about 8pm.
Theleaders were finally detained amid high drama around 8pm, when a phalanx of policemen physically dragged away the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and put him inside a bus, but not before Rahul Gandhi attempted to escape through the window of the vehicle.
The Congress alleged that Gandhi, Venugopal and some others were manhandled and dragged into buses.
They were packed into the vehicles, taken to Kingsway Camp, and subsequently releasedaround 10.15pm. A police aware who did not want to be named said that Congress workers reached the New Police Lines area and attempted to scale walls of the premises.
Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat “hijacked” the country with Kumar’s help by stealing votes.
“What has been done to our country is treason. Nobody is going to escape,” he said.
The BJP hit back. Those who looted the country in power are now talking about ‘theft’…repeated defeats have left Congress frustrated, now it has resorted to threats,” Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.
The Election Commission of India in a statement said that no political party had sought an appointment till 4pm to meet the authorities.
The ECI said that at 4pm, the police informed the poll body that 240 MPs want to meet the election commissioner at Parliament House annexe. “The commission considered the request as unusual and therefore, could not be accepted,” the poll body said in a statement.
The election commission said it was ready to send its senior official to collect the memorandum from the protesting leaders, but the MPs did not agree to it.
The show of strength – which included the Biju Janata Dal, once friendly to the BJP, and the INDIA bloc’s estranged member Aam Aadmi Party – is part of the Opposition’s plan to mount pressure on Kumar over the controversial special intensive revision and other allegations. The developments come after an Indian Express investigation said election commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded written dissents and objections at least 14 times between November 2025 and August 2026 and even written to the cabinet secretary.
It also alleged that election officials found their access to the ECI software curtailed by the central IT team. ECI said differing views and observations were a normal part of deliberation and that all its digital platforms operated under strict data security protocols.
