Rahul Gandhi leads Opposition protest towards Election Commission, climbs barricade and waves Tricolour

 BJP criticises Opposition march, calls it an attempt to create anarchy

PTI, Oct 6, 2026, New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday occupied the centre stage of the Opposition's street protest, forcing a total lockdown of Parliament Street as he tried to march towards the Election Commission's office nearby with hundreds of supporters and other Opposition MPs.

At one point, buoyed by cheers of onlookers, Rahul climbed atop multi-layer steel barricades, stood on it and waved the Tricolour, before slipping through the police cordon to sneak into the premises of All India Radio. Until just before sunset, he remained holed up inside the AIR compound in a defiant standoff with the police, who largely remained passively resolute in preventing the protesters from reaching the Election Commission office.

"All I want to do is meet the Chief Election Commissioner and tell him that he has done 'vote chori'. I can continue to sit here. I am comfortable here," he said.

"If they don't want us to sit here, give us some other site," the Congress MP stated.

The march was the latest in a series of protests by politicians and civil activists to press for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.

Rahul alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat have "hijacked" the country with Kumar's help by carrying out "vote chori".

"What has been done to our country is treason. Nobody is going to escape," he asserted.

Rahul's sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who also sat with him on dharna, had a private discussion with a senior police officer, apparently in a bid by the administration to break the impasse over the Leader of Opposition's insistence on a meeting with Kumar.

The BJP, which held as many as three press conferences within a matter of a few hours, slammed the march and claimed that it was yet another attempt by the Congress and its allies to create anarchy and relaunch Gandhi.

The day-long drama began with the march being stopped soon after it started from Parliament House around 10 am, following which the Opposition MPs sat on the street in front of Akashwani Bhavan just about 200 metres from the Election Commission office.

Most of them, including Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party and TMC's Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien, and CPIM MP John Brittas, were detained and taken away in buses and released later.

Mindful of the chaos that had unfolded during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) march to Parliament on July 20, police had cordoned off roads in a diameter of roughly two kilometres around the Election Commission office on Ashoka Road well in advance.

As MPs were being detained, Rahul spoke to his sister seated inside one of the buses and dashed towards the reception entrance of Akashvani Bhavan, the headquarters of AIR, catching many Opposition MPs, including some from his own party, by surprise.

At the reception entrance, staff tried to prevent him from entering, leading to the long standoff.

Rahul eventually pushed his way inside, accompanied by his security personnel.

He sat under a tree as staff of the broadcasting house rushed outside to watch the unfolding drama.

In a post on X, Rahul said: "Gyanesh it's done bro. Time to resign".