‘Gyanesh Kumar must go’: Opposition MPs march to Election Commission, meet barricades instead

Opposition MPs marched from Parliament on Tuesday to demand Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, and ended up in a standoff with Delhi Police that saw Rahul Gandhi climb a barricade waving the Tricolour. 

The march, which set off from the gates of Parliament towards the Election Commission office near Akashvani Bhawan, was stopped by police before it got there. The MPs sat down in front of the barricades and began raising slogans against the Commission. When police started detaining them and putting them into a bus, Gandhi climbed onto the barricades, and MPs from the Congress and other opposition parties followed. 

Gandhi kept slipping away as police tried to take him into custody. He also managed to bring Priyanka Gandhi, who was already seated in the police bus, back out, and the two entered the Akashvani office premises. From inside the Akashvani complex, they tried to head towards the Election Commission, but the police stopped them again, and they sat down in protest there.  

Speaking to the media during the protest, Rahul said, “We simply want to meet Gyanesh Kumar and the other two Election Commissioners. We are opposition MPs, and we only wish to speak with them. The Election Commission does not want to talk to us. Millions of people have voted for us; we merely want to ask the Election Commission questions, but they are unwilling to provide answers.”

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