Opposition MPs march to Election Commission, demand Gyanesh Kumar resign

INDIA bloc MPs, including Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, marched from the Parliament House complex towards the Election Commission headquarters on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the controversial revision of voter lists.

Police stopped the MPs on Parliament Street in front of the NITI Aayog office, on the stretch between NITI Aayog and Akashvani Bhavan leading towards the Election Commission headquarters. The opposition lawmakers then sat on the road in protest.

Holding a large banner reading “Save Democracy”, the MPs raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded Kumar’s resignation.

Opposition MPs also carried cutouts depicting Kumar in an RSS uniform and raised slogans including “BJP hai CEC hai”, “Vote chor, gaddi chhod” and “Democracy not for sale”.

VIDEO | Delhi: Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi climbs atop the barricades during the INDIA bloc MPs’ march from Parliament to the ECI, demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.

(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/d8jp61yd2p) https://t.co/YkwlFV8WCn

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 6, 2026

In a post on X, Gandhi posted, “Gyanesh it’s done bro. Time to resign”.

TMC leaders Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O Brien, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and CPI (M) leader John Brittas were among those who took part in the march.

Hundreds of security personnel, including paramilitaries in fatigues, were deployed in the area. Barricades were put up and several routes were closed. Television footage showed security personnel, some carrying batons, outside the barricaded Election Commission office.

Security personnel had been stationed in the area well before the MPs began arriving. The opposition lawmakers gathered at Parliament’s Makar Dwar before setting off towards Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission headquarters.

“The election commission is a puppet in the hands of the government. We are fighting to save our democracy,” Kharge, president of the main opposition Congress party, told reporters as the march began.

Parties opposing Modi and members of the popular ‘cockroach’ youth movement launched protests against Kumar — appointed by Modi’s government — after the Indian Express newspaper reported divisions in the poll body last month.

The reported differences over voter lists and registration procedures have stoked concerns about the commission’s neutrality. Congress and other opposition parties allege that the revised voter lists benefit Modi and his party.

VIDEO | Delhi: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) and other opposition leaders detained and taken in a bus after police stopped the INDIA bloc’s protest march on Parliament Street, where they staged a dharna demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.

(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/bIyFWTfmBd)

#Delhi #Congress #ECI #INDIAbloc

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 6, 2026

Kumar has not commented on the issue, but the Election Commission and Modi’s BJP have denied the accusations. The poll body has also rejected suggestions of a split within the three-member Commission and maintained that decisions relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were taken unanimously.

Ahead of Tuesday’s march, opposition MPs questioned the security arrangements and stepped up their demand for Kumar’s resignation, citing the Supreme Court’s observations on changes to Form 6, the statutory application for enrolment as a voter.

Congress MP Imran Masood accused Kumar of eroding public trust in the Election Commission.

“Across the country, the institution that Gyanesh Kumar headed was an institution the entire country trusted, an institution the entire country took pride in and felt proud of. Questions were never raised over its impartiality. One person has broken that trust,” he told PTI Videos.

“And an entire nexus is working together. We will question Gyanesh Kumar, and the BJP chief ministers will start giving the answers,” he alleged.

CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar said the Supreme Court’s observations on Monday had strengthened the opposition’s objections to the additional declaration attached to Form 6 during the SIR of electoral rolls.

“On September 26, there was a press statement by the Commission and it was stated that the entire process related to Form 6 has been ratified by the Supreme Court. Whereas it has been proven that it is an entirely misleading statement,” he alleged.

Calling the CEC a “Cheating Election Commissioner”, the CPI leader said opposition parties had been agitating against the provisions since 2025 and would intensify their movement.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut questioned the scale of the security deployment ahead of the march and said the MPs intended to proceed peacefully.

“We are MPs. We are members of Parliament. We are also citizens of this country. Why is there a need to deploy such a large force to stop us? We will walk and go. We are unarmed,” he said.

Raut claimed that Border Security Force and CISF personnel had been deployed and security outside ministers’ residences increased.

Accusing Kumar of misleading the public over the Supreme Court’s position on Form 6, Raut said the CEC had “no moral right” to continue in office.

The Supreme Court on Monday said it had not approved any modified version of Form 6 and would examine the Election Commission’s records to ascertain whether changes had been made and who had authorised them.

The observations came while the court was hearing a petition challenging alleged unilateral decisions by Kumar.

Gyanesh, it’s done, bro.

Time to resign.

#IndiaAllianceMarch https://t.co/9ZB6aJfakl

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 6, 2026

In its September 26 statement, the Commission had said the declaration attached to Form 6 for SIR had been upheld by the Supreme Court, while forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used outside the SIR period.

India’s Supreme Court also agreed on Monday to hear legal arguments seeking its intervention in the accusations against the poll body’s voter drive and the conduct of its chief.

If “there are decisions against the law … We will take care of it,” the court said at the hearing, after the petitioners alleged bias by the poll body.

Authorities advised people against travelling around the planned protest areas and shut some routes on Tuesday.

The demonstration is the latest in a series of almost daily protests by student organisations, political parties and the ‘cockroach’ movement, which began last week.

The protests mark a fresh political challenge to Modi midway through his third term in office and come just months after similar protests forced the resignation of his education minister over exam paper leaks.

(With inputs from agencies)