INDIA bloc march: EC says no party requested meeting till 4 pm

New Delhi: Hours after the INDIA bloc MPs marched towards the Election Commission and staged a day-long protest, the poll panel on Tuesday evening said no political party sought an appointment through its authorised representatives for a meeting with it till 4 pm.

The Commission said the Delhi Police later informed it that a delegation of MPs led by Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wished to meet the poll panel and submit a memorandum.

The Commission said it learnt through the media that during the march of certain political parties towards the commission headquarters, some MPs wanted to meet the poll panel along with their delegation.


"Till 4 PM today, no political party, through its representatives, had sought an appointment for a meeting with the Election Commission," it said in a statement.

Also read | Election Commission rejects Rahul Gandhi-led MPs' meeting request amid SIR row, says 2025 procedure must be followed

Around 4 pm, the Commission received information from Delhi Police that a delegation of MPs led by Gandhi wanted to meet it and submit a memorandum.

The EC said it had laid down a procedure for meetings with political parties in 2025, under which a delegation of a political party or a joint delegation of several parties seeks an appointment through its duly authorised representative.

The Commission said it respected parliamentary and democratic processes as well as its own protocols and conventions.

"Any political party may, at any time, request a meeting with the Election Commission," the poll panel said.

High drama unfolded during the INDIA bloc's protest march from Parliament Street to the Election Commission headquarters earlier in the day as Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra along with some others entered the Akashvani Bhawan premises in a bid to reach the poll body's office. Rahul Gandhi occupied the centre stage of the opposition's street protest, forcing a total lockdown of Parliament Street. At one point, buoyed by cheers of onlookers, he climbed atop multi-layer steel barricades, stood on them and waved the tricolour, before slipping through the police cordons to sneak into the premises of All India Radio.

Also read | Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra detained by police amid protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar at Akashvani Bhawan

Until just before sunset, he remained holed up inside the AIR compound in a defiant standoff with the police, who largely remained passively resolute in preventing the protesters from reaching the Election Commission office.

Several opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien, were detained after police stopped the march.

The march was the latest in a series of protests by politicians and civil activists to press for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation since a September 25 Indian Express report that suggested irregularities in the SIR process and differences among the election commissioners.