Hours after the INDIA bloc MPs marched towards the Election Commission and staged a day-long protest, the poll panel on Tuesday evening said no political party sought an appointment through its authorised representatives for a meeting with it till 4 pm.
The Commission said the Delhi Police later informed it that a delegation of MPs led by Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wished to meet the poll panel and submit a memorandum.
“Any political party may, at any time, request a meeting with the Election Commission; and the Commission, keeping in view the suitability of time, schedules a date and time for the meeting. Rahul Gandhi occupied the centre stage of the opposition’s street protest, forcing a total lockdown of Parliament Street. At one point, buoyed by cheers of onlookers, he climbed atop multi-layer steel barricades, stood on them and waved the tricolour, before slipping through the police cordons to sneak into the premises of All India Radio. Until just before sunset, he remained holed up inside the AIR compound in a defiant standoff with the police, who largely remained passively resolute in preventing the protesters from reaching the Election Commission office.
The EC said it had laid down a procedure for meetings with political parties in 2025, under which a delegation of a political party or a joint delegation of several parties seeks an appointment through its duly authorised representative.
“Till 4 pm today, no political party, through its representatives, had sought an appointment for a meeting with the Election Commission,” it said in a statement. “The Election Commission considered this request unusual and therefore, it could not be accepted, as, in accordance with ECI protocol, such meetings are held only on the premises of the Election Commission of India,” it said. This is a regular practice,” it said.
High drama unfolded during the INDIA bloc’s protest march from Parliament Street to the Election Commission headquarters earlier in the day as Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra along with some others entered the Akashvani Bhawan premises in a bid to reach the poll body’s office.
