Oct 6, 2026, 09:55:35 IST

INDIA bloc protest LIVE: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav landed in Delhi earlier today ahead of INDIA bloc's protest march to Election Commission headquarters.

“This is not a new issue when it comes to the Election Commission. Complaints and objections against the Election Commission and the way it is functioning are not being raised for the first time. The Election Commission seems to believe that only those people who are members of the Bharatiya Janata Party are Indian citizens,” he said after landing in Delhi.

On several occasions, it appears that the Election Commission also believes that only those who are members of the BJP are entitled to vote, he said.

“People used to say that the BJP functions like an election machine and does not win elections merely through the electoral process. It has a lot of money. In Bengal, we saw how booths were captured through the use of force. And this did not happen only in Bengal. Before that, it happened in Uttar Pradesh,” he added.

Oct 6, 2026, 09:50:03 IST

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE: Gyanesh Kumar, a retired 1988-batch IAS officer, is the chief election commissioner (CEC) of India. He was appointed as an election commissioner in March 2024 and later elevated to lead the multi-member Election Commission of India (ECI), replacing Rajiv Kumar on top post of the poll body.

He is currently facing widespread calls for suspension, resignation, and legal prosecution due to severe allegations of administrative unilateralism, structural irregularities, and mass voter disenfranchisement.

The controversy primarily rests around the massive nationwide voter rollout of revision exercise called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which opposition parties and several others have described as a clean-up drive done to swing the elections in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While Gyanesh Kumar has faced questions ever since the first rollout of the SIR exercise - in Bihar in 2024 - a recent investigative report, claiming that the other two election commissioners-Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi-formally recorded written objections on at least 14 separate occasions over 10 months, has reignited voices against the CEC and ECI's functioning under him.

The investigative report alleges that major administrative, technological, and voter data decisions were taken by Kumar without their knowledge, recommendation, or concurrence. Under law, the ECI must make decisions unanimously or by majority consensus.

Oct 6, 2026, 09:21:35 IST

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE: Assistant commissioner of police (Connaught Place) Vivek Bhagat was promoted to additional deputy commissioner of police in a routine order issued by the Delhi home department on Monday, but the order was later put on hold on the officer’s request.

This comes two days after he was named in a police complaint filed by a female journalist accusing him of sexually harassing her while she was reporting on a protest near Jantar Mantar. Read full HT report here

Oct 6, 2026, 09:06:53 IST

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: Heavy presence of RAF (Rapid Action Force) personnel around Akashvani, ahead of INDIA bloc MPs' march to the Election Commission office today amid the CEC Gyanesh Kumar matter.

Oct 6, 2026, 08:52:47 IST

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: The Supreme Court on Monday clarified that it had not approved any modified version of Form 6, the statutory application form used to enrol new voters. The top court sought the Election Commission’s records to establish who authorised changes to the online form.

This observation has brought into focus a dispute that began with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar in June 2025 and escalated after an SIR-linked declaration appeared on the online Form 6 on the ECINET portal.

The ECI has maintained that Form 6 itself was never amended, and that the disputed provision was a separate SIR declaration. It has also said that its SIR orders were unanimously approved, a claim countered by an Indian Express report showing that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised formal objections to the change. Click here to read HT explainer which gives a date-by-date account of how the controversy unfolded.

Oct 6, 2026, 08:49:19 IST

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said MPs of all Opposition parties would march peacefully from Parliament House to the Election Commission at 11 am, with MPs asked to assemble at Makar Dwar at 10.30 am.

"Till October 8, all INDIA alliance parties will organise pad-yatras at the district level. There will be demonstrations; there will be meetings," he said.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh said his party would not join the march. “As for tomorrow's protest, it is being organised by the INDIA alliance, and the Aam Aadmi Party is not part of it. However, we are fighting this battle in our own way,” ANI news agency quoted him as saying.

Oct 6, 2026, 08:47:30 IST

Gyanesh Kumar news LIVE updates: Security has been beefed up around Vijay Chowk in the national capital on Tuesday in view of a planned protest demonstration by opposition parties, with Delhi Police setting up multiple layers of barricades to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incidents.

Heavy presence of RAF (Rapid Action Force) personnel around Akashvani, ahead of INDIA bloc MPs' march to the Election Commission office today amid the CEC Gyanesh Kumar matter.

Opposition leaders and MPs are set to march towards Nirvachan Sadan, the headquarters of the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the national capital on Tuesday morning, as part of their ongoing protest over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and their demand for the sacking of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.