'We want a clean voters list': India's opposition leader Rahul Gandhi detained during protest against Bihar's SIR, Election Commission

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been detained by the Delhi Police on Monday (Aug 11). Several INDIA bloc MPs, including Sanjay Raut, and Sagarika Ghose, were also detained as they staged a protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. The lawmakers, who began a march from Parliament House to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters, were stopped midway near Transport Bhawan. After being detained, Rahul Gandhi spoke to reporters from a Delhi Police van and said that it is a fight to save the Constitution. Former CM of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, was also seen jumping a police barricade during the protest.

“The reality is that they cannot talk. The truth is in front of the country. This fight is not political. This fight is to save the Constitution. This fight is for One Man, One Vote. We want a clean, pure voters list,” he added. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called the BJP-led government ‘coward’, and added in Hindi, "Dare hue haii."

The protest by the Opposition leaders came even as the Election Commission of India gave an appointment to Opposition MPs for an interaction at 12 pm on Monday (Aug 11). Due to limitations of the space, the EC had requested to submit the names of up to 30 people along with their vehicle numbers for the meeting.

Opposition INDIA bloc MPs led by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and floor leaders of other parties began the march to the EC from Parliament at 11.30 am but the Delhi Police said that no permission was sought for the march. Police said that security was tightened and barricades were erected at multiple points along the route.

The march comes after Rahul Gandhi in a press conference last week, made explosive claims of a “huge criminal fraud” in polls through “collusion” between the ruling BJP and the EC, as he cited an analysis in a constituency in Karnataka and said it was “a crime against the Constitution”. He claimed that over 1 lakh votes in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka were found to be fake, duplicate, bulk voters, with invalid addresses and new voters added with misuse of Form 6, according to news agency PTI.