Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka camp at Akashvani Bhavan

• Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi camp at Akashvani Bhawan to protest
• Opposition leaders were detained while marching to the EC office
• Leaders demand to meet poll body over alleged electoral roll errors

The INDIA bloc’s protest against the Election Commission over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls took an

unexpected turn on Monday as Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra along with other Opposition leaders camped at Akashvani Bhawan after their march to the poll body's office was halted and several leaders were detained. Several Opposition leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien and Mahua Moitra, and CPI(M) MP John Brittas marched towards the Election Commission's office (Nirvachan Sadan) from the Parliament. As several leaders were detained by the Delhi Police, Rahul Gandhi dashed towards the reception entrance of Akashvani Bhavan. At the reception entrance near gate number 3 of Akashvani Bhavan, staff tried to prevent Gandhi from entering, leading to a tense stand-off. He eventually pushed his way inside, accompanied by his security personnel, and was later joined by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

https://youtu.be/QI_363KGY40?si=U0Ge7ue7YenjuOux

The two sat under a tree near gate number 4 as staff of the broadcasting house rushed outside to watch the unfolding drama. As the Delhi Police asked the Opposition to vacate the site, Rahul Gandhi said the police should tell the leaders "where we can stage a sit-in." "I told the police, 'I was sitting over there earlier. You removed me from there. Now I have come here, and you want to remove me from here too.' I am simply asking the police—fine, if you want to remove me from here, go ahead, but just tell me: where in this country can I sit?" During evening, as Gandhi siblings, camped at the Akashvani Bhavan, the Congress shared a video from the site. "This is today's India 👇. The Leader of the Opposition and MPs have to sit in protest to defend the right to vote and protect our democracy. Modi has brought India to this dangerous brink," the Congress posted.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader KC Venugopal, who was also present along with Rahul Gandhi, posted, "Unmoved. Unfazed. We will not budge until our demands are met. We will not rest until our democracy is saved from the Vote Chors."

While Gandhi has asserted that the MPs will meet the election commissioners, the poll body said it has not received any request from any political party for any meeting.

"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.

In July, Rahul and Priyanka, accompanied by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, had staged a sit-in outside the Prime Minister's Lok Kalyan Marg residence, demanding the resignation of PM Narendra Modi over the police action against students protesting on the NEET paper leak issue.

Along with other opposition leaders, the two were briefly detained by police and removed from the protest site.