CEC Gyanesh Kumar row highlights: Rahul Gandhi, other Congress leaders released from detention

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: Samajwadi Party MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, along with his fellow MPs, climbed atop a police barricade placed near Niti Aayog's office en route to the Election Commission of India headquarter.

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: On INDIA Bloc MP's protest march, Congress MP Rajeev Shukla said that "it is certain that Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign; people have lost faith in the Election Commission."

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: Samajwadi Party MPs, who are a part of the INDIA bloc MPs' protest, climb on the Delhi Police barriers near the office of NITI Aayog, en route to the office of the Election Commission of India.

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: On INDIA Bloc's protest march, SP MP Jaya Bachchan says, "BJP's job to make allegations. They are in power, so they will do that. We are doing our work... We will act according to whatever instructions our party leadership gives us..."

(via ANI)

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: The INDIA bloc marching towards the ECI headquarter is set for a showdown with security which has put layers of barricading to stop it from proceeding towards the building.

Barricades have been put up in front of Niti Aayog among other spots.

Opposition is also preparing to burn effigy of Gyanesh Kumar.

(With inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji)

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi's X handle shares is live-streaming the protest march against alleged vote-theft by CEC Gyanesh Kumar from Parliament to ECI headquarter.

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: INDIA bloc MPs begin march from Parliament to the ECI, demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: Former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik's BJD has joined the Opposition march to ECI headquarter, according to Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh.

(With inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji)

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: Opposition leaders of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha have kickstarted their march to the ECI headquarter against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in poll body decisions taken “unilaterally” under him.

Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha LoPs Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, respectively, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav are among those taking part in the march.

The MPs gathered at Parliament's Makar Dwar and marching towards Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission headquarters.

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav and several others have gathered at Parliament for the protest march to the ECI building against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.

The proposed route of the march is from the Makar Dwar of Parliament to EC office via Sansad Marg

Opposition leaders have been calling out Gyanesh Kumar with chants of “Gyanesh Kumar chor hai”, “Gyanesh Kumar istifa do” [Gyanesh Kumar is a thief, Gyanesh Kumar resign] at Parliament complex.

(with inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji)

CEC Gyanesh Kumar row LIVE: CISF DIG Sanjay Kumar Sain, along with Parliament security staff, takes stock of the security outside the Parliament premises, ahead of INDIA bloc MPs' protest march from Makar Dwar to the Election Commission of India over CEC Gyanesh Kumar matter today.

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE: “My source says Gyanesh Kumar can resign before 10th Oct,” said Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj in a post on X on Tuesday amid calls for the chief election commissioner's resignation over alleged “unilateral” decisions taken under him by the poll body - ECI - particularly the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

INDIA bloc march LIVE: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Tuesday called INDIA bloc's planned protest march to the ECI headquarter in Delhi a “sponsored effort by some opposition parties in the country, especially the Congress party, to somehow change the government and bring Rahul Gandhi to power.”

“For this, a sponsored attack is being carried out on India's democracy and constitutional institutions. This process did not begin a few months ago, it has been going on for years. From the beginning, the Congress party has repeatedly tried to launch and relaunch Rahul Gandhi by any means possible. Despite several attempts, when Rahul Gandhi could not be launched, the Congress party and some of its allies ultimately decided that even if they have to launch Rahul Gandhi through anarchy, they will attack the country's democracy,” he said, according to a PTI news agency video of his press briefing on Tuesday morning.

"But at any cost, they will politically launch Rahul Gandhi. Even if we have to attack Indian democracy and establish anarchy in India, we will not desist from that, but in every possible way, we will try to launch Rahul Gandhi... EVMs have been attacked. And for the past few weeks and months, the Election Commission has been under attack," he added.

INDIA bloc protest LIVE: On INDIA bloc MPs' march from Parliament to the ECI, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut asked what was the need for such stringent security measures for members of Parliament.

“They have deployed the Border Security Force and brought thousands of CISF personnel, from Parliament House to Nirvachan Sadan. I have just learnt that the security outside the houses of all ministers has also been increased. What is the need for this? We are MPs. We are members of Parliament. We are also citizens of this country. Why is there a need to deploy such a large force to stop us? We will walk and go. We are unarmed,” he said.

"We want to go to Nirvachan Sadan and tell Gyanesh Kumar, 'Brother, resign. You have done something very wrong to the country. You are an enemy of the country.' The Supreme Court has said that you are a person who lies. The Supreme Court did not know about the changes made to Form 6, did it? The Supreme Court has said that changes were made to Form 6 while keeping it in the dark, and Gyanesh Kumar was saying that he knew about it. So, he is a liar. Such a person has no moral right," he added.

(Via PTI)

INDIA bloc protest LIVE: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav landed in Delhi earlier today ahead of INDIA bloc's protest march to Election Commission headquarters.

“This is not a new issue when it comes to the Election Commission. Complaints and objections against the Election Commission and the way it is functioning are not being raised for the first time. The Election Commission seems to believe that only those people who are members of the Bharatiya Janata Party are Indian citizens,” he said after landing in Delhi.

On several occasions, it appears that the Election Commission also believes that only those who are members of the BJP are entitled to vote, he said.

“People used to say that the BJP functions like an election machine and does not win elections merely through the electoral process. It has a lot of money. In Bengal, we saw how booths were captured through the use of force. And this did not happen only in Bengal. Before that, it happened in Uttar Pradesh,” he added.

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE: Gyanesh Kumar, a retired 1988-batch IAS officer, is the chief election commissioner (CEC) of India. He was appointed as an election commissioner in March 2024 and later elevated to lead the multi-member Election Commission of India (ECI), replacing Rajiv Kumar on top post of the poll body.

He is currently facing widespread calls for suspension, resignation, and legal prosecution due to severe allegations of administrative unilateralism, structural irregularities, and mass voter disenfranchisement.

The controversy primarily rests around the massive nationwide voter rollout of revision exercise called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which opposition parties and several others have described as a clean-up drive done to swing the elections in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While Gyanesh Kumar has faced questions ever since the first rollout of the SIR exercise - in Bihar in 2024 - a recent investigative report, claiming that the other two election commissioners-Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi-formally recorded written objections on at least 14 separate occasions over 10 months, has reignited voices against the CEC and ECI's functioning under him.

The investigative report alleges that major administrative, technological, and voter data decisions were taken by Kumar without their knowledge, recommendation, or concurrence. Under law, the ECI must make decisions unanimously or by majority consensus.

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE: Assistant commissioner of police (Connaught Place) Vivek Bhagat was promoted to additional deputy commissioner of police in a routine order issued by the Delhi home department on Monday, but the order was later put on hold on the officer’s request.

This comes two days after he was named in a police complaint filed by a female journalist accusing him of sexually harassing her while she was reporting on a protest near Jantar Mantar. Read full HT report here

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: Heavy presence of RAF (Rapid Action Force) personnel around Akashvani, ahead of INDIA bloc MPs' march to the Election Commission office today amid the CEC Gyanesh Kumar matter.

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: The Supreme Court on Monday clarified that it had not approved any modified version of Form 6, the statutory application form used to enrol new voters. The top court sought the Election Commission’s records to establish who authorised changes to the online form.

This observation has brought into focus a dispute that began with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar in June 2025 and escalated after an SIR-linked declaration appeared on the online Form 6 on the ECINET portal.

The ECI has maintained that Form 6 itself was never amended, and that the disputed provision was a separate SIR declaration. It has also said that its SIR orders were unanimously approved, a claim countered by an Indian Express report showing that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised formal objections to the change. Click here to read HT explainer which gives a date-by-date account of how the controversy unfolded.

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said MPs of all Opposition parties would march peacefully from Parliament House to the Election Commission at 11 am, with MPs asked to assemble at Makar Dwar at 10.30 am.

"Till October 8, all INDIA alliance parties will organise pad-yatras at the district level. There will be demonstrations; there will be meetings," he said.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said his party would not join the march. “As for tomorrow's protest, it is being organised by the INDIA alliance, and the Aam Aadmi Party is not part of it. However, we are fighting this battle in our own way,” ANI news agency quoted him as saying.

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: Security has been beefed up around Vijay Chowk in the national capital on Tuesday in view of a planned protest demonstration by opposition parties, with Delhi Police setting up multiple layers of barricades to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incidents.

Heavy presence of RAF (Rapid Action Force) personnel around Akashvani, ahead of INDIA bloc MPs' march to the Election Commission office today amid the CEC Gyanesh Kumar matter.

Opposition leaders and MPs are set to march towards Nirvachan Sadan, the headquarters of the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the national capital on Tuesday morning, as part of their ongoing protest over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and their demand for the sacking of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.