Rahul Gandhi, INDIA bloc MPs stopped en route to Jantar Mantar, turn the road into a protest site
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during INDIA bloc protest against Gyanesh Kumar. (Image INC India)
By AMIT KUMAR
Stopped on the road, INDIA bloc sits down: Day 2 against CEC. Dramatic visuals emerged from Janpath where Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were detained by the police.
New Delhi, October 7, 2026 — Barricades, buses and a roadside sit-in. For the second day running, Lutyens’ Delhi became the opposition’s stage.
A day after being detained near Akashvani Bhavan, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were stopped from reaching Jantar Mantar on Wednesday, so the INDIA bloc MPs got off their buses and sat down outside the Shangri-La Hotel. The protest was against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The day began indoors. Mallikarjun Kharge hosted a lunch meeting for INDIA bloc MPs at Sagar Ratna on Janpath, where they discussed SIR and a letter seeking an urgent meeting with the Election Commission. Then came the move to the street. Rahul Gandhi said “Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign.”
The scene turned chaotic. NSUI workers climbed onto a Delhi Police riot-control vehicle, and Congress MPs perched on top of the bus carrying the leaders. Congress MP Manickam Tagore said police were not letting them sit at Jantar Mantar. Karti Chidambaram argued the MPs were only travelling privately on a permitted bus. BJP hoardings near Janpath were also damaged.
Tuesday set the template. Police halted the march from Parliament near the NITI Aayog office. Rahul climbed a barricade waving the Tricolour, and MPs raised the slogan “Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod” before being detained. FIRs followed. Rahul brushed them off as badges of honour, and Venugopal and Khera echoed him.
The opposition’s demands are layered. They want Kumar’s resignation, the SIR order scrapped and elections held on ballot papers. Only the second is a realistic bargaining chip. Removing a CEC needs a parliamentary process like that for a Supreme Court judge, which the opposition lacks the numbers to force. The protest is therefore about pressure and visuals. Each detention supplies a photograph, and each FIR supplies a grievance.
That strategy carries risk. Damaged hoardings and people climbing on police vehicles let rivals shift the debate from voter lists to law and order. The BJP has long accused Gandhi of distorting facts o
The coalition is showing unity on the ground. Derek O’Brien said everyone was there united and without egos, and Kapil Sibal asked why the Commission had not met the leaders. The campaign is also spreading beyond Parliament’s MPs. AAP, Left and Congress workers protested at the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office, and AAP announced a nationwide protest on October 10 centred on Jantar Mantar.
(Developments were still unfolding at the time of writing.)
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