New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were detained on Tuesday after opposition MPs were prevented from marching to the Election Commission headquarters to press for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
The INDIA bloc MPs had assembled at Parliament’s Makar Dwar before setting out towards Nirvachan Sadan. Their march was halted near the NITI Aayog office, along the road connecting the government think tank and Akashvani Bhavan to the Election Commission headquarters.
As the security personnel refused to allow them to proceed, the MPs sat down on the road and began raising slogans against the CEC. Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee climbed over a police barricade after the route was blocked.
‘Gyanesh It’s Done Bro. Time To Resign’
The protesters carried cutouts showing Kumar dressed in an RSS uniform and shouted slogans such as “BJP hai CEC hai”, “Vote chor, gaddi chhod” and “Democracy not for sale”.
In a message posted on X, Gandhi wrote: “Gyanesh it’s done bro. Time to resign”.
The march was attended by TMC leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and CPI (M) leader John Brittas, among others.
Security was tightened around Parliament and the Election Commission office ahead of the planned protest, with barricades placed at several points. Personnel had taken positions in the area well before the opposition MPs arrived, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The opposition has intensified its demand for Kumar’s removal while referring to the Supreme Court’s observations on changes made to Form 6, the statutory form used to apply for inclusion in the electoral rolls.
Congress MP Imran Masood said the Chief Election Commissioner had damaged the credibility of an institution once widely trusted by citizens.
“Across the country, the institution that Gyanesh Kumar headed was an institution the entire country trusted, an institution the entire country took pride in and felt proud of. Questions were never raised over its impartiality. One person has broken that trust,” he told PTI Videos.
“And an entire nexus is working together. We will question Gyanesh Kumar, and the BJP chief ministers will start giving the answers,” he alleged.
