Rahul Gandhi detained in Delhi over SIR protest

Delhi Police briefly detained Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra late Tuesday after an opposition march in the capital demanding a meeting with the Election Commission and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The two leaders, along with other INDIA bloc MPs, were stopped as they moved from Parliament towards the Election Commission’s headquarters. After they were taken into custody, they were later released. Left the New Police Line at Kingsway Camp, where they had been held.

Outside the police facility, Congress leader Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said the group had been released after detention by Delhi Police. He alleged that MPs were handled “like ‘gangsters’ and ‘criminals’,” and asked: “We are not criminals. What is our crime?”

The confrontation capped a day of high-voltage protest in New Delhi over the SIR exercise, which the opposition has framed as “vote theft” and as a threat to fair elections. The Election Commission has rejected any wrongdoing and says the revision aims to improve the accuracy and integrity of voter rolls.

Protest over voter-roll revision

During the march on Tuesday, Gandhi climbed a police barricade and waved the national flag before officers detained him and other lawmakers and then released them soon after.

The protest focused on the SIR, a large-scale voter-list revision that has drawn criticism and allegations of irregularities from opposition politicians. Critics have argued the process could disproportionately affect marginalised and minority communities, including Muslims. The Election Commission has denied the allegations.

After the march, opposition leaders held a sit-in at Akashvani Bhavan, the offices of the state broadcaster adjacent to the protest route. Gandhi told reporters from behind the building’s iron gates: “The country has been hijacked by Narendra Modi through vote theft.” He added, “What has been done to our country is called treason. Nobody is going to escape.”

Gandhi also claimed that around 300 opposition MPs wanted to meet the Election Commissioners to submit concerns.

Later on Tuesday night, the Election Commission issued a statement explaining why it denied the opposition’s demand to meet the Chief Election Commissioner. The poll body said it learnt about the proposed meeting through media reports, and that none of the MPs or their representatives had approached it to seek an appointment, calling the request unusual.

Government hits back

Union minister for steel and heavy industries H D Kumaraswamy, speaking in Mulbagal in Karnataka’s Kolar district on Tuesday, accused Gandhi of creating confusion about the SIR by raising the allegation of vote theft.

Kumaraswamy said public discussion after the launch of the revision drive was a positive development. He also questioned the basis for staging a protest in front of the Election Commission’s office in New Delhi. Pointed to claims that around 90,000 applications for deletion had been received while processing was yet to begin.

The exchange sharpened a political fight already running through Parliament and onto the streets, with the opposition casting the revision as an abuse of process and the government and the Election Commission insisting it is an administrative exercise.

Why Gandhi’s role matters

Gandhi, 56, is the Congress party’s most prominent national face and currently serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He has represented Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh since June 2024.

His detention, even if brief, adds to the pressure campaign the opposition has built around the SIR and the Election Commission’s handling of it. It also places the LoP at the centre of a confrontation that blends parliamentary politics with street mobilisation, a mix Gandhi has leaned on repeatedly over the past few years.

Gandhi entered national electoral politics in 2004, winning from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, a seat he held until 2019. He later represented Wayanad in Kerala from 2019 to 2024, and served as Congress president from 2017 to 2019.

He has also led two major public outreach marches: the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022–2023 and the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in 2024. After the 2024 general election, in which the opposition INDIA bloc improved its position, he took on the constitutional role of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

For now, the immediate dispute is procedural as well as political: the opposition wants direct engagement with the Election Commission’s top leadership on the SIR, while the poll body has signalled it will not be pressured into unscheduled meetings announced through the media.

The next steps will depend on whether the opposition renews its request through formal channels. Whether the Election Commission offers a hearing or maintains that the process is being conducted properly and does not warrant the resignation demand directed at the Chief Election Commissioner.