High drama as Oppn march to ECI blocked

Nearly 300 Opposition lawmakers on Monday morning marched from Parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) over alleged irregularities in voter rolls but were stopped and later detained by Delhi Police, prompting some parliamentarians to scale the barricades in what became a major show of strength.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

The MPs, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, started marching around 11.30am, but were stopped at Sansad Marg at noon, metres away from the Parliament complex amid heavy deployment of police and security personnel.

Lawmakers sat down on the road in protest, and insisted that all protesting MPs must be allowed to reach the ECI office at Ashoka Road. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress's Mahua Moitra and Congress's Sanjana Jatav and Jothimani climbed over the barricades and raised slogans against ECI.

At 1pm, they were whisked away by police in buses lined up along the road and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. All the MPs were released after 2pm.

The Opposition lashed out at ECI but the poll watchdog and the Bharatiya Janata Party condemned the Congress.

"Today, when we were going to meet the Election Commission, all the MPs of the INDIA alliance were stopped and taken into custody. The truth of vote theft is now before the country. This fight is not political-it is a fight to protect democracy, the Constitution, and the right to one person, one vote," said Gandhi.

"The united Opposition and every voter in the country demands: a clean and transparent voter list. And, we will secure this right at all costs," he added.