Opposition MPs allege police used clenched fists, elbows to assault them from behind

Several lawmakers of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc allege that the Delhi Police played a neat ruse to hurt them physically without being seen as directly charging at them with batons, by cleverly shoving them from behind using clenched fists and by nudging them forcefully with elbows shortly after they were stopped from marching from Parliament to the Election Commission headquarters (Nirvachan Sadan) located next to Patel Chowk on Ashoka Road on October 6.

Some of the MPs who spoke to Open said they were first stopped near the NITI Aayog office and then taken away first towards the Parliament Street Police Station in a van and then to India Gate before they were placed in a lock-up at the Mandir Marg Police Station. In the evening, they were released.

Amidst the high drama in the national capital, MPs, including Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and leaders of I.N.D.I.A. bloc allies, marched demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the reported division within the poll panel, with two members questioning the authoritarian ways of Kumar. The opposition and the agitating youth led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) are also outraged by what they describe as a blatant “lie” by ECI that the modified Form 6, meaning the new declaration attached to Form 6, was approved by the Supreme Court’s May 2026 judgment on Bihar SIR. The court, however, has clearly stated that it did not approve it, much to the anguish of Gyanesh Kumar.

While Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and many others tried reaching the poll panel office via the Akashvani Bhavan campus, others like Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s (CPM) Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas, AA Rahim and others were stopped by the forces on Parliament Street as they tried to march towards Nirvachan Sadan around 11 am.

The protest, attended among others by top-notch Congress leaders, those from Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, CPM -- and also saw surprise backing from five Biju Janata Dal MPs -- demanded the immediate resignation of Kumar.

Lawmakers John Brittas, AA Rahim, V Sivadasan and P Sandosh Kumar said that they were physically assaulted with elbows and fists by the forces from behind, apart from being dragged along the road by their hands while they were lying on their backs after they were stopped from proceeding with their march near the barricades on Parliament Street. Lutyens Delhi was fortified ahead of this march even as youth protests continued demanding Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. Several students were beaten up reportedly on a whim, as claimed by CJP leaders and Leftist student leaders who are at the forefront of the protests seen as a sequel to the one that rocked the national capital a few months earlier and led to the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. These young people can now be seen chanting furiously in various parts of the capital that “Gyanesh, It’s Done Bro! Jantar Mantar 2.0 is coming!”

“My whole back and shoulders are hurting badly because of the way the police treated us,” John Brittas told Open, arguing that the police wanted to hurt him and other MPs under the pretext that they were helping them move towards the van from within the crowds and the media that had gathered there. Delhi Police didn't respond to email queries sent to them about these serious charges.