Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are detained at Akashvani Bhawan after an eight-hour sit-in

Delhi Police detained Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday evening after an INDIA bloc march towards the Election Commission ended in an eight-hour sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan. The Tribune reported that the two were taken away after more than eight hours inside the broadcasting house and were released later that night. Parliament Street was closed as the column tried to reach Nirvachan Sadan. The Indian Express said more than 300 opposition MPs were in the march. Police stopped it short of the commission and began detaining leaders. Gandhi and his sister left that group, entered the Akashvani premises, and stayed there with Congress colleagues.

The demand was the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Opposition MPs say the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and a wider pattern they call vote chori, has compromised the rolls. They want Kumar out before further revision work proceeds. The immediate text they cited was a report in The Indian Express that the two other Election Commissioners had objected on record 14 times in 10 months to steps taken under the CEC, including being kept in the dark, additions of new voters, and deletions. The commission has not accepted the charge of theft. It has pointed to a 2025 protocol that requires MPs to seek a prior appointment before a meeting. Gandhi, speaking during the standoff, said he wanted to tell Kumar directly that the revision amounted to vote chori.

The sit-in was a change of plan, not the original route. Once police blocked the road to Nirvachan Sadan, the two Gandhis asked either to be allowed through or to be given a designated place in the city to continue the protest. Entering Akashvani Bhawan made the second option physical. Broadcasting House is not an election office. Holding the protest there put All India Radio's premises between the march and the commission, and it kept the leaders in a building cameras could still see after the street column had been broken up. Police also detained protesters gathered outside the compound. The Express said the leaders were released later in the night. A full arrest count for the street detentions was not in the first reports.

The march is one in a series. Left student organisations have already said they will join a separate protest at Jantar Mantar on 10 October, demanding the same resignation and the withdrawal of the revision. BJP leaders held three press conferences in six hours on Tuesday answering the opposition line. The commission's appointment rule is the procedural reply: MPs may meet the CEC, but not by marching to the gate. The political reply from the opposition is that a protocol written in 2025 cannot be the answer to objections the other two commissioners have already put on file 14 times.

What Tuesday settled is narrower than either side claimed. The march did not reach Nirvachan Sadan. Kumar did not resign. Gandhi and his sister were detained and then released. The 14 recorded objections, the SIR timetable, and the 10 October student protest are the items still on the calendar. The eight hours inside Akashvani Bhawan are the part of the day that will show up in the police paperwork.