A procession under the INDIA Bloc banner, with Rahul Gandhi — who holds the position of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha — at its head, drew large crowds onto the streets of central Delhi on Monday, filling the stretch between Connaught Place and the Supreme Court with participants carrying flags and raising slogans as part of the alliance's 'Chalo Dilli-March for Democracy'.
Citing what it described as irregularities in the Summary Revision of electoral rolls, the alliance called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down and for the review process to be suspended.
Attendees had been trickling in and occupying the venue for a stretch of hours before the gathering took on any real form. Around half past one in the afternoon, demonstrators and those aligned with opposition parties had gathered in numbers along Barakhamba Road, where vehicle access had been suspended. With flags raised overhead, portions of the crowd climbed onto the exteriors of buses while those gathered waited for Rahul and the other alliance leaders to take the stage.
Travelling by bus alongside Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other alliance members, Rahul arrived at around 3.30 pm, the vehicle swinging in from the Mandi House direction along Barakhamba Road before looping back near Statesman House as a procession of supporters moved through the streets behind them. Mamata Banerjee, who previously served as West Bengal's chief minister, stopped at Constitution Club to show support for the gathering before departing for Kolkata. Kharge, heading the Congress party, and Akhilesh Yadav, who leads the Samajwadi Party, were both in attendance.
Among those travelling aboard the vehicle were K C Venugopal, Tejashwi Yadav, Supriya Sule, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Sanjay Raut, MA Baby, D Raja, DK Shivakumar, Revanth Reddy, Dharmendra Yadav, Sachin Pilot, Abhishek Singhvi, Saugata Roy, V Sivadasan, and Deepender Hooda, with Yogendra Yadav, Neha Bora, and Sai Balaji rounding out the group of passengers on board.
Rahul, Priyanka, and Bora stepped off the bus and proceeded on foot, drawing a crowd of thousands behind them. Participants from student bodies, civil society organisations, and youth activist networks walked alongside opposition supporters toward the Supreme Court, with the crowd repeatedly calling out a slogan demanding the ruling party relinquish power.
A slogan that circulated among the crowd — "Ek kachori, do samosa, in teeno ka kya bharosa" — was interpreted by some observers as directed at Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Chief Election Commissioner. Attendees at the event included people who had put on Batman masks, a nod to an online meme casting Rahul in the role of the caped hero.
By around half past five, foot traffic along Bhagwan Das Road had thickened considerably, with pedestrians flowing in steadily from the direction of Mandi House. Crowd members had climbed into tree branches or clambered onto buses, holding flags aloft as a truck carrying INDIA bloc politicians moved through the area. Uniformed officers took up positions behind barricades near the junction where the road tapered toward Tilak Lane.
Barricade tape went up along the perimeter while a combined deployment of officers and paramilitary personnel — numbering in the hundreds — tightened their formation around the gathered group. Officers intervened and brought the march to a halt after it had covered only a brief stretch of road.
Near Barakhamba Road, a crowd pushed past the barrier line as officers on the ground attempted to keep the perimeter intact. Footage captured Rahul alongside Akhilesh, Tejashwi, Venugopal, and Sule, all gathered on the flatbed of a truck. Along Bhagwan Das Road, a number of people scaled the row of stationary police vehicles and buses, raising their voices in chants and cheers while INDIA bloc members acknowledged them with waves.
Banners representing NSUI, Youth Congress, AISA, AISF, and SP were visible throughout the gathered crowd. Officers moved the crowd of supporters off to one side. Scuffling broke out among those gathered as security forces — with officers indicating that upwards of 10,000 personnel had been stationed across New Delhi and its surrounding areas — advanced into the assembled crowd. At that point, the vehicle transporting the politicians reversed course and drove away, as the crowd of protesters began to disperse.
A petition naming the Election Commission of India as a respondent was subsequently lodged at the Supreme Court, where the group of politicians had made their way. The petition contests rulings made in connection with the Summary Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, pressing for greater openness in the process and protections against the removal of voter names.
Demonstrations outside the court followed after opposition legislators, who had sought an audience with Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to deliver a memorandum outlining allegations of voting irregularities, were not granted that meeting. Pointing to active proceedings already before the court, he directed them to lodge their concerns by way of a formal petition.
Devender Yadav, who heads the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, stated that the protest would persist until the Chief Election Commissioner resigned from his post. In a statement, he described the effort as one the group had been pursuing across an extended period.
The opposition has alleged that the BJP acted to shield the Chief Election Commissioner from independent oversight, further contending that the official administered electoral procedures in a manner designed to benefit those at the top of the governing party. Critics have also put forward accusations that he acted against the interests of both the nation and its people, with those making the claims asserting that accountability would follow through the pressure of the broader movement.
