By Tuesday afternoon, most people in the Congress camp thought the protest was over. The opposition MPs had been stopped by police, detained, and loaded into buses. Then Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra changed everything with a few steps.

The result was a Rahul Gandhi sit-in at Akashvani Bhavan, the All India Radio headquarters in Delhi, and a standoff that was still unresolved at the time of writing.

How the day began

It started as a march from Parliament to the Election Commission of India. The INDIA bloc MPs wanted Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. Their argument is that the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists has wrongly pushed genuine voters off the rolls, and that it works in the BJP's favour.

Police stopped them before they got anywhere near the ECI office. Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien were among those detained. Earlier in the march, Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had climbed onto a barricade.

The moment nobody saw coming

Priyanka was already sitting in a bus parked outside Akashvani Bhavan. Rahul Gandhi was about to step in after her.

Then the two of them looked at each other and walked straight past the police, into the complex. The officers on duty seemed unsure what to do.

Within minutes, KC Venugopal and Pawan Khera had climbed the wall and started calling out slogans. Imran Pratapgarhi and Srinivas BV followed. Some Congress leaders standing outside admitted they were as confused as everyone else. As one MP put it, only the two Gandhis knew what they were thinking.

So, was it planned?

According to party sources. They say Rahul Gandhi's idea was to cut through the Akashvani Bhavan grounds and come out from the back gate, which faces the Election Commission office. Every other path to the ECI had been blocked, so he made the plan up as he went.

It didn't quite work. Once he was inside, police shut the gate. So the Gandhis sat down where they were.

Priyanka takes charge of the talks

Sources say Priyanka is handling the negotiations with senior police officers. She has reportedly spoken to the Home Secretary and made clear that the group won't budge until they are allowed to reach the Election Commission and meet its officials.

Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force are posted outside the complex. According to one officer, the personnel inside are there to keep the leaders safe.

Pawan Khera posted on X that the INDIA bloc had tried to walk to the ECI that morning, that police had stopped the MPs by force, and that the Gandhis and other leaders were now on a dharna inside the All India Radio premises.

Kharge: "This protest will continue"

Congress president Kharge made it clear the party is not backing down. He said the we are fighting for to protect people's votes and freedoms, and he claimed many citizens have found their names deleted from voter lists.

The BJP hits back

The BJP wasn't having any of it. Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the opposition was venting frustration over election losses. He then listed Kerala, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand, and asked whether those opposition victories were illegitimate too, since they came under the same system.

Sambit Patra went further, saying the Congress was trying to relaunch Rahul Gandhi politically, whatever the cost.

Why the Election Commission is under pressure

This protest didn't come out of nowhere. The Indian Express recently reported a rift inside the poll panel. According to that report, two Election Commission officials put their objections on record at least 14 times in 10 months over decisions made without their knowledge.

The Commission acknowledged those notes and called them part of its decision-making process. It did not say whether the concerns were addressed, or how.

Where things stand

The standoff continues. Whether all leaders get to meet Election Commission officials, or leave without doing so, will shape how this plays out. We'll update this story as it develops.