New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had ‘hijacked’ the country with the help of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar by carrying out ‘vote chori’, and asserted that action would be taken against them for committing ‘treason’.
"Nobody is going to escape accountability," Gandhi said during a standoff with police on the Akashwani Bhavan premises after opposition MPs were prevented from marching to the Election Commission office, barely 300 metres away.
Earlier, in a post on X, Gandhi said more than 300 opposition MPs had marched from Parliament to meet the election commissioners.
"We represent crores of Indians. Why aren't the Election Commissioners meeting us? Why is the police stopping and threatening us?" Gandhi said.
High drama unfolded during the INDIA bloc march from Parliament Street to the Election Commission headquarters here on Tuesday as Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with some others, entered the Akashvani Bhavan premises in a bid to reach the poll body's office after they were stopped on Parliament Street during their march to demand the CEC's resignation.
Several opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien, were detained.
The police had put up barricades on Parliament Street and other approach roads to thwart the march.
As detained MPs were being taken away in buses, Rahul Gandhi rushed towards the Akashvani Bhavan complex, where he pushed his way through along with some of his supporters and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
He was accompanied by Congress MPs including K C Venugopal, Deepender Singh Hooda, Charanjit Singh Channi, Pawan Khera, Imran Pratapgarhi and Praniti Shinde.
Gandhi and other leaders stayed inside the complex under a Banyan tree, insisting that they be allowed to meet the election commissioners.
"I am not interested in what the BJP says. I am standing here to protect democracy in the country. Along with me, 300 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs had come and they are also trying to protect democracy," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha told reporters.
"Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat and CEC Gyanesh Kumar have finished off democracy in the country. The whole country believes this; the youth of the country also believe this. The police people who were stopping me are also saying this. The reality is known to everyone," Gandhi said.
As the sit-in at Akashvani Bhavan stretched into the evening, Gandhi said the MPs would meet the election commissioners.
EC sources, however, said that no request for a meeting had been received from any political party.
"They will have to meet us... The MPs were disrespected. We have not done anything wrong. We want to go to the election commissioners and ask questions of them and tell them that they have done vote chori," Gandhi said.
He said the leaders staging the sit-in at Akashvani Bhavan were ‘very comfortable’, talking among themselves, having tea and sitting on mattresses.
On claims that they were disrupting traffic and causing inconvenience, Gandhi said the police should then tell them "where can we stage a sit-in, and we will sit there".
Reiterating his allegations against the BJP leadership and the CEC, Gandhi said, "What they have done is treason and we are going to destroy them."
