Police on Wednesday stopped Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other INDIA bloc leaders short of Jantar Mantar, detaining the Gandhi siblings for the second day running as the Opposition tried to shift its agitation over the voter-list revision to the capital’s designated protest ground.
Buses carrying MPs left a lunch hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and moved toward Jantar Mantar. Officers halted the convoy at a roundabout near the Shangri-La hotel, about a hundred metres from the site, saying a protest there needs prior permission. Delhi Police have said applications must be filed ten days ahead and that gatherings are capped at 1,000 people. A heavy cordon, described by leaders and witnesses as running into the thousands, had already been thrown around central Delhi after Tuesday’s standoff.
Denied the road, the leaders sat down where they were stopped. Priyanka Gandhi and other women MPs lay on the asphalt holding copies of the Constitution. Officers first lifted Rahul Gandhi onto their shoulders and put him in a police bus. Congress MPs Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Udai Bhanu Chib climbed onto that bus; Mumtaz Patel sat on the bonnet. Women personnel then carried Priyanka Gandhi and the other women protesters away. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien was also detained. Mahua Moitra accused police of using lathis on peaceful protesters; that claim was not independently confirmed.
Priyanka Gandhi said officers had shoved her to the ground and scratched her. “This is how they treat Members of Parliament who are asking simply to meet the Election Commissioner,” she said. “They are beating MPs… Now, we are not going to move from here.”
The protest is aimed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The Opposition wants him to resign over what it calls “vote chori” and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Before the buses rolled, Rahul Gandhi told reporters that about 300 MPs from both Houses had wanted to meet the CEC on Tuesday and had been turned away. “For us, Gyanesh Kumar is not the legitimate Election Commissioner of the country,” he said.
He repeated the charge he made a day earlier, naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Kumar, and said what they had done amounted to treason. “No traitor will be spared,” he said. On the cases already filed over the protests, he added that 45 FIRs stood against him and that his aim was 100. “Every FIR is a medal for me.”
Wednesday’s detentions followed Tuesday’s longer confrontation. Opposition MPs marching from Parliament toward the Election Commission were blocked near NITI Aayog. Rahul Gandhi climbed a barricade with the Tricolour. He and Priyanka Gandhi then walked into the Akashvani Bhawan complex next to the Commission, turning a stopped march into an hours-long sit-in before police detained them. FIRs were registered after that protest.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the bloc had moved to Jantar Mantar precisely because it is the notified site for demonstrations, and cited Article 19. “We are not being allowed to hold a peaceful protest at a designated site. How will democracy work like this? We will come again,” he said. Police have treated the attempt as an unauthorised assembly. The Opposition has said it will keep returning until the CEC steps down.
