NEW DELHI: Indian police detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and several opposition lawmakers for the third time in two days on Wednesday as opposition parties intensify protests against “election fraud” and demanding the resignation of the country’s top election official over a controversial revision of voter lists.
The protests have intensified following allegations that the Election Commission improperly revised electoral rolls in a process that could disenfranchise eligible voters and benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Gandhi and other opposition lawmakers were detained after they attempted to travel to the designated protest site at Jantar Mantar in central New Delhi, where they planned to demonstrate against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were dragged away by Delhi Police – for a second time in as many days – after opposition MPs kick-started Day 2 of protests demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar quit over irregularities in the SIR process. Read: https://t.co/Pp0FWnfH1t https://t.co/rNZdgtRgIY
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) October 7, 2026
Wednesday’s protest began after a lunch meeting of opposition lawmakers organised by the Congress party in central Delhi, near Jantar Mantar.
Gandhi said the lawmakers had decided to go to the designated protest site after police prevented them from demonstrating elsewhere on Tuesday.
LIVE: Protest Against Vote Chori | New Delhi https://t.co/uvtwjvQ5pH
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 7, 2026
“Yesterday … Delhi Police stopped us and said you cannot protest here … so today … we will go to the designated protest site, sit there, and tell the country that, for us, Gyanesh Kumar is not the legitimate commissioner,” Gandhi told reporters.
“The people who have done this (vote theft) are traitors … Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign,” he said before boarding a bus carrying the lawmakers to Jantar Mantar.
We are not going to stop protesting till Gyanesh Kumar resigns. This is a fight to protect the most sacred thing in this country. There is nothing that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can do that will stop us. https://t.co/MgvabcQPPR
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 7, 2026
Lawmakers held posters against the bus windows reading “no vote theft, no democracy theft” and “election commission, not BJP commission”.
Hundreds of Congress supporters accompanied the bus on foot as police and paramilitary personnel in riot gear were deployed in large numbers.
Police also closed the road leading to Jantar Mantar, forcing the bus to take a detour.
Gandhi later stepped out of the bus and joined protesters. Video carried on the Congress party’s YouTube channel showed him standing amid a crowd of protesters and security personnel, while his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other lawmakers sat or lay on the road.
जुल्मी जब-जब जुल्म करेगा सत्ता के गलियारों से चप्पा-चप्पा गूंज उठेगा इंकलाब के नारों से https://t.co/xTTOyEnr8W
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 7, 2026
Visuals showed security personnel taking Gandhi and Vadra into separate vehicles.
Opposition demands election chief’s resignation
The protests follow a confrontation between opposition lawmakers and police in Delhi on Tuesday.
Gandhi, Vadra and other opposition MPs had attempted to march to the Election Commission’s headquarters, seeking a meeting with Kumar and the other election commissioners and demanding Kumar’s resignation.
Police broke up the demonstration and briefly detained several lawmakers.
According to ANI, citing a police statement, the protesters were removed “to maintain law and order and prevent the situation from escalating”.
The Gandhis and other lawmakers later staged a sit-in near the Election Commission headquarters after being stopped from reaching the poll panel’s office.
The Election Commission said it was willing to meet opposition representatives but objected to a proposed 240-member delegation meeting the commissioners at Parliament.
In a statement issued on Tuesday night, the commission said a party representative must request an appointment and that meetings were held at the commission’s office.
“We are all opposition MPs … and we just want to speak with them,” Gandhi told reporters earlier on Tuesday. “I do not know why the Election Commission does not want to talk to us.”
The Gandhi siblings were also detained in a police bus but released shortly afterwards, before resuming their march and joining the sit-in.
Police did not say how many lawmakers had been detained. The opposition said 237 MPs from several parties took part in Tuesday’s march.
Dispute over voter roll revision
At the centre of the dispute is the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The exercise began in Bihar in June 2025 before being expanded to other parts of India.
The commission says the revision is aimed at removing duplicate and ineligible voters from electoral rolls. More than 130 million names have so far been removed from draft voter lists nationwide.
Opposition parties and activists allege that the exercise has also excluded eligible voters and accuse the poll panel of conducting the revision improperly.
The controversy intensified after the Indian Express reported last month that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders they said had been issued in the commission’s name without their knowledge.
The newspaper reported that the objections concerned issues including additions and deletions from voter rolls, access to the voter database and the security of electoral data.
The report triggered a political backlash and intensified opposition demands for Kumar’s resignation.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the opposition had three “non-negotiable” demands: Kumar’s resignation, cancellation of the SIR exercise and a return to paper-ballot voting.
Gandhi has repeatedly accused the election authorities of facilitating what he calls “vote theft”. He also mocked Kumar in a social media post, writing: “Gyanesh, it’s done, bro. Time to resign.”
Fresh challenge to Modi government
The demonstrations represent a fresh challenge to Modi’s government midway through his third term and have brought the Election Commission under renewed political scrutiny.
The protests have also coincided with demonstrations organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), described as a Gen Z-backed online satirical youth movement.
The group held demonstrations in Mumbai and Delhi four days before Tuesday’s opposition protest and has demanded Kumar’s resignation. It has described those protests as the beginning of a nationwide campaign and called for another round of demonstrations on October 10.
The movement had earlier staged protests over alleged examination paper leaks, which, according to the account provided, led to the resignation of India’s education minister.
