Thousands of people gathered in central Delhi on Monday as opposition leaders began their march to the Supreme Court to challenge Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of electoral irregularities.
their legal team filed a petition against the poll panel chief over alleged “vote chori” (vote theft) While the INDIA bloc leaders marched.
The Leader of Opposition urged citizens across political affiliations to support the march, arguing that the dispute concerned the future of democracy rather than the interests of any individual party or politician.
In a message posted on X, Rahul Gandhi said the INDIA alliance had previously written to the Chief Justice of India, who had directed it to file a petition.
The opposition has said it intends to submit a petition to the Supreme Court on Monday, following an earlier communication with the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters earlier today, Rahul Gandhi said the opposition’s fight would continue until the Election Commission’s leadership changed, the Constitution was upheld and the electoral system was overhauled. The protest marks an escalation in the opposition’s campaign against the Election Commission of India (ECI), with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calling on Kumar to resign from his position. He added that the opposition wanted to demonstrate that Indians would not be intimidated by political pressure. The former Congress president urged people to remain patient and persistent, warning that political change and the protection of democratic institutions could not be achieved overnight.
The Opposition’s campaign against Gyanesh Kumar intensified after a report by The Indian Express said two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had recorded objections at least 14 times over the preceding 10 months.
Gandhi said the opposition was engaged in several political battles simultaneously and sought to portray the dispute as a broader contest over public confidence in the government. Rahul Gandhi said the opposition’s campaign would not end with Monday’s march, arguing that sustained public mobilisation would be necessary to protect democratic institutions. He said resistance to the Election Commission’s actions had existed previously but had not resulted in protests on the streets on the present scale. Most of the objections concerned decisions and orders relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, according to the report.
“We had written a letter to the CJI. He directed us to file a petition.
Now, leaders of the INDIA alliance will march to the Supreme Court against ‘vote theft’ and file the petition,” he said.
