RG Vows to Destroy BJP

Rahul Scales Barricades, Stages Sit-In at AIR in Dramatic EC Protest

metro india news  I new delhi : Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi led hundreds of INDIA Bloc MPs in a high-drama march from Parliament to the Election Commission of India headquarters on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Police stopped the procession near the NITI Aayog office on Parliament Street, prompting a prolonged sit-in that spilled onto the premises of Akashvani Bhawan, the All India Radio headquarters adjacent to Nirvachan Sadan.

The opposition lawmakers, drawn from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), Shiv Sena (UBT), Left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, assembled at Parliament’s Makar Dwar in the morning. Carrying “Save Democracy” banners and cutouts depicting the CEC in an RSS uniform, they raised slogans including “Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod,” “BJP hai CEC hai” and “Democracy not for sale” as they advanced toward the poll panel’s office.

Heavy security deployments and iron barricades halted the march on the stretch between NITI Aayog and Akashvani Bhawan, roughly 150 to 300 metres from Nirvachan Sadan. Rapid Action Force personnel reinforced the cordon. Rahul Gandhi climbed atop a police barricade, national flag in hand, and waved the Tricolour while cameras captured the moment. TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and several Samajwadi Party MPs also scaled the barriers. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule, TMC leaders Derek O’Brien and Abhishek Banerjee, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were among those present.

Denied entry to the Election Commission complex, the MPs sat on the road for a dharna. Police began detaining participants and loading them into buses bound for different police stations. 

In a sudden shift, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra walked past officers into the Akashvani Bhawan premises through a reception gate. They sat under a tree near one of the gates, continuing the protest as AIR staff gathered to watch. Congress leaders KC Venugopal and others scaled the boundary wall and raised slogans from outside. The sit-in inside the broadcasting house premises stretched for hours, with opposition leaders bringing carpets and sheets to sustain the demonstration.

Speaking at the site, Rahul Gandhi said around 300 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs had come to meet Gyanesh Kumar and the other Election Commissioners. “We are representatives of the people of India and represent the voice of the country. I do not know why 300 MPs have been stopped here and made to sit here and are not being allowed to go to the Election Commission,” he stated.

In another remark he asserted that if there had not been “vote chori,” the CEC would have agreed to meet them at once. On social media he posted: “Gyanesh, it’s done bro. Time to resign.” He further accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and the CEC of damaging the democratic system through electoral manipulation and declared that none would escape accountability, describing the actions as treason against the country.

One report put the number of participating MPs at 237. The Aam Aadmi Party and DMK stayed away from the march, with AAP indicating it would pursue the issue through its own channels. Authorities maintained that no formal permission had been sought for a large demonstration and that only a limited number of MPs had been cleared to enter the ECI premises.

The protest formed part of the INDIA Bloc’s coordinated campaign against the Special Intensive Revision process. Opposition leaders allege the exercise has led to large-scale deletions from electoral rolls and has compromised the integrity of the voter list. At a bloc meeting in late September, the parties announced the October 6 march, district-level “Save Democracy” programmes between October 2 and 8, and larger rallies in the weeks ahead, including a major gathering planned for Delhi. Demands include the CEC’s resignation, scrapping of the SIR order, a return to paper ballots in place of electronic voting machines, and restoration of pre-SIR electoral rolls for future polls.

By afternoon, many detained leaders had been released. The Congress signalled it would intensify activity with block- and district-level protests from 10 to 20 October under a “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” campaign running into November, culminating in yatras converging on the capital. The day’s events, marked by barricade-climbing, a sustained road sit-in and the unexpected occupation of space inside Akashvani Bhawan, kept the opposition’s challenge to the Election Commission’s leadership firmly in public view across the high-security corridor of central Delhi.