Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Detained After Hours-Long Sit-In Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Released Later
It was one of those days in the capital when the usual parliamentary noise spilled out onto the streets and stayed there for hours. Around 10:30 in the morning, Opposition MPs from the INDIA bloc gathered at Makar Dwar of Parliament House. They carried a simple banner that read “Election Commission is compromised – Sack Gyanesh Kumar.” Their plan was straightforward: walk a few hundred metres to Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission headquarters, and demand a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They never made it that far. Delhi Police had already put up layers of barricades near the NITI Aayog office on Parliament Street. The march was stopped. Some leaders sat down on the road. Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee climbed onto the iron barricades and waved the Tricolour. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was briefly put into a police bus, got down again, and joined her brother. Then, in a move that caught many by surprise, Rahul, Priyanka, K.C. Venugopal and a few other Congress MPs slipped into the compound of Akashvani Bhawan – the All India Radio building that sits just metres away from the Election Commission office. They sat under a tree. White mattresses appeared. Slogans against “vote chori” and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls continued. Rahul kept repeating that all they wanted was to meet the three election commissioners – Gyanesh Kumar, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi – and hand over their demands: resignation of the CEC, scrapping of the SIR exercise, and restoration of deleted voter names. Hours passed. Police kept asking them to leave. Rahul told officers he was comfortable sitting there and would stay as long as needed. “We represent the voice of the nation. If representatives can’t meet the election commissioners, what’s the meaning of democracy?” he said at one point. Later he posted on X: “Gyanesh, it’s done bro. Time to resign.” By late afternoon the sit-in had stretched past eight hours. Around 7:50 in the evening, police moved in. They cleared the premises, forced the leaders into buses, and took them to New Police Lines at Kingsway Camp in north Delhi. Roughly 50 MPs and about 200-250 supporters were detained, according to police sources. Rahul resisted briefly and tried to climb out of a bus window. Priyanka was released first, then reportedly went back toward the area where her brother was being held before she too was let go. Rahul and the others walked free around 10:10-10:15 pm – roughly two hours after detention. Congress called the action heavy-handed. Priyanka said after her release, “The nation has never seen a coward government like this… Staging protest is our right.” Party leaders asked what the government was afraid of. The Opposition has been building pressure for weeks after reports that the two other Election Commissioners had recorded formal objections at least 14 times in ten months over decisions on voter rolls, Form 6 changes, centralisation of data and deletions in states like West Bengal. They allege the SIR process has led to large-scale deletions of genuine voters – figures of over 13 crore have been cited in political speeches – while the government and BJP call the charges baseless and accuse the Opposition of misleading the public. BJP spokespersons dismissed the protest as political theatre. Delhi Police said the MPs had entered Akashvani Bhawan without permission and that action was taken to maintain public order. The Election Commission later said it had received a meeting request late in the evening but the proposed venue did not match protocol. The protest is part of a wider campaign that began after the Indian Express report on internal dissent within the three-member Commission. Opposition parties have already staged nationwide demonstrations, burned effigies in some places, and spoken of moving a formal removal notice in Parliament. AAP and DMK stayed away from Tuesday’s march, while Biju Janata Dal MPs joined. By Wednesday morning the leaders were free, the streets were clear again, and both sides were preparing for the next round. The INDIA bloc has signalled it will continue pressing the same three demands. The government and the Commission maintain that the electoral process remains independent and that the revision exercise is being carried out as per law. What happened on Tuesday was not a quiet petition. It was a public standoff that lasted nearly nine hours, ended with detentions, and left the core questions about the Election Commission’s functioning still hanging in the air. Sources:The Hindu (live updates and reports, 6-7 October 2026)Telegraph India (7 October 2026)India Today (6 October 2026)Indian Express (6 October 2026)News18, Rediff, Statesman, PTI inputs and police statements as reported across outlets. @Rohit Manral
Supreme Court Clears Air on Form 6 Changes, Issues Notice Amid Protests Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar
The protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar have been heating up across the country for weeks now, with opposition parties taking to the streets demanding his resignation over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. On Monday, the Supreme Court stepped into the middle of it all and made one thing very clear: the changes to Form 6, the form people fill to get their names added as new voters, were not something the court had ever approved. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, was hearing petitions that accuse Kumar of taking decisions on his own without proper involvement of the other two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. One of the main points raised was about how Form 6 had been altered online on the ECINET portal. During the hearing, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy pointed out that the form had been changed in a way that added extra questions about whether the applicant or their parents or grandparents had been on the rolls during earlier SIR exercises. She argued this was done without following the proper legal process. The Chief Justice responded straight away: “Let’s be very clear. Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us… Let us also be clear that when the record will be produced, we will like to see who has modified what.” That statement cut through a lot of the confusion. Just days earlier, the Election Commission had put out a statement saying the declaration attached to Form 6 for the SIR period had been upheld by the Supreme Court. The court has now said that is not the case. Form 6 is a statutory form under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Any real change to it is supposed to go through proper channels involving the government and parliamentary oversight, not just get added online. The court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, the Centre, CEC Gyanesh Kumar himself, the other two commissioners, a Deputy Election Commissioner and the DG of IT. It wants the full records produced so it can examine what exactly was decided, by whom, and whether those decisions followed the law. The bench made it clear that if any decision turns out to have been taken without unanimity or majority, it can be struck down. “We will examine all the decisions. If any decision is not in accordance with the law, we will annul it. You know the power of the court,” the judges said. At the same time, the court refused to pass any interim order suspending Kumar from his post or stopping him from functioning while the case is pending. The Chief Justice noted that the court cannot act only on newspaper reports and needs to look at the actual records first. These petitions stem from an Indian Express investigation published in late September that detailed how Sandhu and Joshi had put their objections on record at least 14 times over ten months. Their concerns covered changes to Form 6, the way names were being added or deleted from voter lists, access to the electoral roll database, and other steps taken during the SIR exercise. One of them had even called the Form 6 alteration “unauthorised and illegal” and asked for it to be withdrawn, yet it stayed live for some time. The protests against Kumar have been going on in multiple cities. Congress workers and other opposition groups have held marches, tried to reach Election Commission offices, and called for his removal, accusing the process of disenfranchising large numbers of voters. In some places police used water cannons or detained protesters. There have also been attempts by groups of former civil servants and activists to submit what they call a people’s chargesheet to the Commission. The Election Commission has maintained that all major SIR decisions had the approval of the full Commission and that differing views are normal in any institution. After the controversy grew, it announced that the additional declaration would be limited to SIR periods and that the original Form 6 under the 1960 Rules would apply otherwise. Sources in the Commission have also said they did not change a single comma in the original Form 6 itself, only added a separate declaration in some cases. Still, the Supreme Court’s clarification on Monday has given fresh momentum to the criticism. Opposition leaders have seized on the court’s words to argue that the changes lacked proper legal backing. The court has asked for responses within a week or so and indicated it will look closely at the records when they come in. For ordinary people trying to get on the voter list for the first time, especially young voters whose families may not have been on older rolls, the extra questions on the online form had become a practical hurdle. Whether that extra layer was necessary for cleaning up the rolls or whether it went beyond what the law allows is exactly what the court now wants to examine with the full papers in front of it. The case is likely to come up again soon once the replies and records are filed. Until then, the protests continue and the questions around how decisions were taken inside the Election Commission remain very much alive. Sources:The Indian Express (reports dated 5 and 6 October 2026 and earlier investigation of 23 September 2026), India Today, Business Standard, The Hindu BusinessLine, The Wire, News18, Economic Times, Hindustan Times, LiveLaw, Verdictum, Deccan Herald. @Rohit Manral
Hundreds Detained as Delhi Protest Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar Enters Third Day; Journalist Who Alleged Cop Harassment Among Those Held
New Delhi, October 4, 2026 – The protest demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar stretched into its third straight day on Sunday, and by evening the streets around Ashoka Road and the Shangri-La intersection looked like a scene of mass detention. Hundreds of students, activists and ordinary citizens were picked up by Delhi Police as they tried to march towards Jantar Mantar. Among those taken away was AISA national president Neha Bora – detained for the third consecutive day – and a woman journalist who only a day earlier had accused a police officer of sexual harassment while covering the same agitation. The march, organised under the banner of the All India Students’ Association and backed by several civil society groups, began from Andhra Bhawan circle in the afternoon. Protesters carried placards calling for Kumar’s resignation and an immediate halt to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. They alleged that the SIR process had led to large-scale and irregular deletion of voter names. The crowd included students from different universities, members of youth organisations, and a few senior activists who have been part of the stir since Friday. Police had already put up multiple layers of barricades. When the march reached the Shangri-La intersection, officers blocked the road. What followed was a familiar pattern of the past three days: pushing, dragging, and people being forced into buses and private vehicles. Videos circulating later showed male officers handling women protesters, and one clip captured a man being shoved into a bus with his head pressed down. Neha Bora was taken around 5 p.m. AISA claimed she was pulled into a private SUV by male personnel who were not wearing name badges, and that no woman officer was present inside the vehicle. Her colleagues said they did not know her exact location for some time. Police later confirmed she had been detained and taken to Narela Industrial Area police station. She was released in the evening, as were most others. The woman journalist who had alleged sexual harassment on Saturday was also among those detained on Sunday. She had gone to the Parliament Street police station the previous night with her complaint, and on Sunday she joined the march. After being taken away she told people nearby, “Instead of arresting the accused police officer, they have detained me. Is this justice?” Delhi Police has said that three women journalists filed complaints of sexual harassment against officers during Saturday’s protest, and that the complaints have been transferred to the Crime Branch for inquiry. No FIR has been registered so far, according to reports. Estimates of the number detained varied. Some accounts put the figure at around 250, others said nearly 500 people were picked up from different points in central Delhi and shifted in 10 to 15 buses. Police sources later spoke of roughly 110 detentions and claimed 12 to 15 officers were injured during scuffles. Heavy deployment – nearly 5,000 personnel including Rapid Action Force units, drones and CCTV monitoring – was visible throughout the day. Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS remain in force in the New Delhi district. The protest itself is part of a wider anger over the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls. Opposition parties and activists have accused the Election Commission of opacity and of allowing deletions that could affect the fairness of future polls. The Commission has maintained that the exercise is meant to clean up duplicate and ineligible entries. Gyanesh Kumar has not issued any public comment on the street protests. On the ground, the mood among those who managed to stay out of police vans was defiant. “We will come again tomorrow,” several young protesters said as they regrouped near the barricades. Similar demonstrations were reported in Mumbai, where the Thackeray brothers led a march on the same issue. By late evening most of those detained had been released. The journalist who alleged harassment was also let go. But the questions she and the other two women raised remain unanswered. The Crime Branch inquiry is yet to begin in earnest, and the demand for Kumar’s removal continues to echo on Delhi’s streets for a third day. Sources:The Hindu, Indian Express, The Wire, Times of India, CNBC-TV18, Telegraph India, Deccan Herald, News18, Hindustan Times (reports dated 3–5 October 2026).
If Gyanesh Kumar Goes, Modi Will Have to Follow Suit: Dipke
Mumbai, October 3 – Abhijeet Dipke is not mincing words anymore. The Cockroach Janta Party founder stood at Shivaji Park in Dadar and said straight out that if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar does not resign, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to go as well. He called the whole thing “vote chori” on a massive scale. Dipke claimed nearly 13 crore names have been struck off the voter lists in the last couple of years. That number, he said, is no coincidence. It lines up with the difference between the NDA and the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. According to him, once Kumar took over as CEC, the government started deciding who gets to vote and who does not. “Is this still democracy?” he asked the crowd. Dipke did not stop at the Election Commission. He pointed the finger directly at the Prime Minister. He said Modi is the one pulling the strings. If the Centre refuses to make Kumar quit, then the protests will demand Modi’s resignation next. “If Gyanesh Kumar does not leave his post, the Prime Minister will have to resign,” he told the gathering. He warned that Jantar Mantar 2.0 is coming, and even if they lock him up for three months, he will come back. The protest itself had a mix of young faces. People held placards, did street plays, sang a bit. Dipke announced the next steps: similar protests in Goa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. If nothing happens by the end of October, they will camp at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. He made it clear CJP will not join the opposition’s planned protest on October 6. They want to stay separate. He put the current mess in a longer story. After 2024 did not go as the BJP hoped, he said they turned to voter-list changes in Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Stalin and Kejriwal, he claimed, lost because so many voters simply disappeared from the rolls. At the same time, he said the party let opposition governments stay in some places while tightening its grip on the bigger states. He compared it to match-fixing. Dipke also spoke about the constant party-hopping. He said 111 sitting MLAs and MPs switched sides between 2022 and 2026. If legislators can be bought like that, why bother with elections at all? Just auction the seats like IPL players, he said. He brought up the splits in Shiv Sena, NCP and other regional parties, arguing the real aim is one country, one party. There is the internal report hanging over everything. The Indian Express had detailed how Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi put formal objections on record at least 14 times in ten months. Some of those notes said decisions were taken without them even knowing. The Commission’s line has been that different views are normal and every order is legally sound. Kumar is a 1988-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer. He became CEC in February 2025. Earlier he worked in the Home Ministry around the Article 370 decision and the Ram temple trust. He was the first CEC chosen under the 2023 law that changed how the panel is selected. Opposition parties have been after him for months over the Special Intensive Revision. CJP has now raised the stakes by tying his job to the Prime Minister’s. Dipke also made a broader appeal. He said the last twelve years have been spent dividing people on Hindu-Muslim lines. He asked people to put that aside and stand together as Indians first. Support whoever you want, he said, but right now the vote itself is under threat. Whether any of this forces a resignation is another matter. The Election Commission has given no sign that Kumar is leaving. The government has treated the internal notes as ordinary differences. Still, Dipke’s words at Shivaji Park have made the demand sharper. In his telling, Kumar and Modi are now linked. The protests are set to continue, and CJP says it will not back down until the CEC goes. Sources:ETV Bharat report on Dipke’s Mumbai statements, October 3, 2026Deccan Chronicle, Hindustan Times, Outlook India, ThePrint, Moneycontrol and PTI coverage of CJP protests and the SIR row, September 24 to October 2, 2026Indian Express investigation into objections inside the Election Commission @Rohit Manral