“What has been done to my country is treason,” Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said even as the Opposition parties closed ranks on Tuesday (October 6, 2026), marching from Parliament to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) headquarters to demand the scrapping of special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, restoring the names of deleted voters and sacking of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Later in the evening, Mr. Gandhi, his sister, the Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and other MPs were detained and huddled into a bus even as Mr. Gandhi resisted, attempting to wriggle out of the vehicle’s window.
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Before being detained, Mr. Gandhi, along with Ms. Priyanka and Congress leader K.C. Venugopal, held a sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan – the headquarters of All India Radio, just metres away from Nirvachan Sadan, where the protest march was stopped at 11 a.m. by Delhi Police.
By evening, the number of protesters inside Akashvani Bhawan swelled as several other parliamentarians joined. At around 6 p.m. Congress reached out to all parties to join the sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan. TMC’s Derek O’ Brien and Mahua Moitra, IUML’s ET Muhammad Basheer and SP’s Mohibullah Nadvi who were removed earlier in the day by Delhi Police, also returned to join Mr. Gandhi.
While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) stayed away from the protest, all 19 parties that attended the September 30 INDIA bloc meeting were represented. Top Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, and NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, were seen walking together. For the first time, Biju Janata Dal, which has maintained distance from both the ruling side and the INDIA bloc, joined in.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the ECI of working for the BJP. “Only BJP members can vote. BJP’s workers can be India’s citizens,” he said, accusing the government of using multiple measures to “steal the mandate”. Mr. Yadav accused the ECI of especially targeting the “Pichde, Dalit and Alpsankhyak (PDA)”, or backward, Dalit and minorities. The acronym PDA is a rallying call for his party. Mr. Banerjee was seen raising slogans while standing side by side with Mr. Gandhi.
The march began at 10.30 a.m. from Makar Dwar of the Parliament, with the leaders carrying a banner reading: “Election Commission is compromised – Sack Gyanesh Kumar”. At Akashvani Bhawan, after being stopped by police, the leaders sat down, raising slogans against Mr. Kumar and the government. Slogans such as “vote chor gaddi chodh” (vote thief leave the seat), “Gyanesh Kumar istifa do” (Gyanesh Kumar resign) were raised, and leaders were seen carrying placards readng “BJP hi CEC hai” and “Democracy not for sale”.
Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Banerjee, Samajwadi Party’s Akshay Yadav, and very briefly Ms. Priyanka climbed the barricades.
Delhi Police had barricaded all roads leading to Parliament amidst heavy security deployment. Around noon, the Delhi Police began bundling the leaders into buses, clearing the site. Mr. Akhilesh and Mr. Banerjee, along with other prominent Opposition leaders, Mr. O’ Brien and John Brittas, were detained and taken to the Parliament Street police station, where Samajwadi Party workers protested for about an hour.
Sudden move
At this point, Mr. Gandhi and a few other Congress leaders squeezed past private security personnel posted at the gates of Akashvani Bhawan to enter the building. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and Mr. Kumar have “destroyed” the country’s democracy. “Narendra Modi stole votes to hijack the country,” he said, adding that everyone involved will have to face the punishment of law.
The National Students’ Union of India and Youth Congress activists briefly barged through the gates of Akashvani Bhawan, storming the precincts. Delhi Police sent out buses to detain these activists.
Despite senior Delhi Police officials’ multiple efforts to negotiate through the impasse, Mr. Gandhi and other senior leaders refused to leave. The INDIA Bloc will be holding another protest on Wednesday (October 7, 2026).
Published – October 06, 2026 05:09 pm IST
