Rahul Gandhi Briefly Detained During Election Protest in Delhi; Opposition Demands Resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was briefly detained by police on Tuesday during a protest march against the Election Commission of India (ECI), with opposition parties demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Opposition lawmakers began marching from Parliament towards the ECI headquarters in New Delhi but were stopped by heavy police deployments and barricades. Gandhi, a senior Congress leader, was seen standing on a police barricade and waving the Indian flag before being detained along with other lawmakers. They were released shortly afterwards. Some opposition politicians sat on the road after police stopped the march, as protesters called for greater transparency in the revision of voter lists.
The demonstrations began on Friday, with opposition parties accusing the Election Commission of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They have demanded Kumar’s resignation and alleged that changes to electoral rolls could disenfranchise eligible voters.
The Election Commission has rejected the allegations, saying the revision process is intended to improve the accuracy and integrity of electoral rolls. Kumar has not publicly commented on the accusations.
Placards carried by protesters included slogans such as ‘Gyanesh, it’s done, bro’, along with allegations of electoral manipulation.
The protests are part of a wider campaign against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The controversy intensified following a September report by The Indian Express, which said that two of the ECI’s three members had formally objected at least 14 times to key decisions related to the voter-roll revision.
The report also claimed that the names of around 130 million citizens had been deleted since the revision exercise began in 2025, a figure that has become a major point of contention between the opposition and election authorities.
The Supreme Court is also considering legal challenges related to the voter-roll revision and allegations concerning the Election Commission’s conduct.
