After a strategy lunch on Janpath, the India Bloc MPs set out for Jantar Mantar, only to be halted by police roadblockades.
At the Sagar Ratna restaurant, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had called the MPs together, urging them to step up their agitation over the so‑called vote‑chori scandal and to demand the chief election commissioner's resignation.
Rahul Gandhi, who had earlier led an eight‑hour sit‑in at Parliament Street and was briefly detained, said that about 300 MPs wanted to meet the chief election commissioner, and that the protest at Jantar Mantar would be a statement that Gyanesh Kumar is not the legitimate head of the polls.
Delhi Police said that any protest at Jantar Mantar requires permission filed at least 10 days in advance, a rule the opposition has ignored as it races to secure a place for the demonstration.
The next step for the bloc is to submit the formal application for the protest, after which the authorities will decide whether to allow the march or impose further restrictions.