New Delhi: The request for a meeting by a delegation of 240 Opposition MPs, led by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, is against the Election Commission of India protocol, the poll body said in a statement issued late Tuesday. This came hours after Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with party workers and about 300 Opposition MPs, were stopped midway during a march against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Meanwhile, sharing the ECI’s statement in a post on X, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said that the commission had exposed Rahul Gandhi’s “lies” and “false claims”.
“Rahul Gandhi kept saying all day today that he was not being allowed to meet with the Election Commission. The Election Commission clarified that no formal request for a meeting had been received from the Congress or the INDI alliance,” the post read.
Rahul, Priyanka and their Congress colleagues were detained Tuesday night from Akashvani Bhavan, where they had been staging a dharna for nearly eight hours. The Opposition is demanding CEC Kumar’s removal over concerns about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and transparency within the ECI.
The ECI said that it learnt through media that some Members of Parliament wished to meet the Commission, along with their delegation. However, it clarified that “till 4 pm today, no political party, through its representatives, had sought an appointment for a meeting with the Election Commission”.
It added in the statement that around 4 pm, it received information from Delhi Police that a delegation of MPs, led by LoP Rahul Gandhi, wished to meet the Commission and submit a memorandum.
However, the press note further said that according to the procedure laid down by the ECI in 2025, whenever a delegation of a political party, or a joint delegation of several parties, wishes to meet the Commission, it seeks an appointment through its duly authorised representative, and then a meeting is held at a time mutually agreed upon by both sides.
With respect to the meeting sought by Opposition MPs Tuesday, the ECI said that while it was considering their proposal, it was informed by DCP, Delhi Police that the meeting was being sought to be held with a group of 240 MPs, and that the proposed venue was the Parliament House Annexe.
The ECI said that it found this request to be “unusual”, and “therefore, could not be accepted, as, in accordance with ECI protocol, such meetings are held only on the premises of the Election Commission of India”.
The commission then proposed that its senior-most officer on duty could be sent to the meeting venue to receive the memorandum from the MPs, which, it said, was an “unprecedented step” in itself.
“However, this offer was also declined by the Hon’ble MPs,” the statement added. “ECI respects the parliamentary and democratic processes of the country, as well as its own protocols and conventions, which are of utmost importance. Any political party may, at any time, request for a meeting with the Election Commission; and the Commission, keeping in view the suitability of time, schedules a date and time for the meeting. This is a regular practice.”
‘EC exposes every lie’
BJP posted on X that Rahul made one false accusation after another against ECI, but it “exposed the truth behind each of his false claims to the public every time”.
The post said that Rahul claimed that CEC Gyanesh Kumar makes decisions alone. “But all three Election Commissioners have clarified that decisions in the Commission are taken collectively and have always been,” it added.
चुनाव आयोग ने राहुल गांधी के हर झूठ को किया बेनकाब!
राहुल गांधी ने चुनाव आयोग पर एक के बाद एक झूठे आरोप लगाए, लेकिन चुनाव आयोग ने हर बार उनके झूठे दावों की एक-एक कर सच्चाई जनता के सामने रख दी।
झूठ नंबर 1:
राहुल गांधी का दावा था कि मुख्य चुनाव आयुक्त अकेले फैसले लेते हैं।
लेकिन… pic.twitter.com/Wk9sWBW5il
— BJP (@BJP4India) October 6, 2026
About the meeting request, it said, “At 4 PM, it was learned through the police DCP that Rahul Gandhi wanted to meet. The Election Commission clarified that he was immediately ready to meet through representatives under the prescribed procedure, but Rahul Gandhi was not ready to meet under this procedure.”