Opposition leaders who were going to the Supreme Court demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar have been stopped by the police near Mandi House.
Many opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and AISA student leader Neha Bora are included in this march.
Where the march has been stopped, the police have put up heavy barricades on the road. A large number of policemen are deployed at the spot.
Earlier, BBC correspondent Dilnawaz Pasha present on the ground told that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and opposition leaders boarded a bus and reached outside Barakhamba metro station and then joined the march.
Workers of Congress, Samajwadi Party, Left parties and hundreds of students are present in the march.
According to Dilnawaz Pasha, only people are visible from far and wide on the road leading from Barakhamba Metro Station to Mandi House.
Many MPs from Congress and opposition are also present with Rahul Gandhi.
There is a distance of about 2 kilometers between Barakhamba Road and Supreme Court. The protesters are going to file a petition against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They are demanding action against Gyanesh Kumar and his resignation.
Before the march, Rahul Gandhi told the media that these were not separate protests, but a single protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
It is noteworthy that the India Alliance has announced to take out a march from Barakhamba to the Supreme Court demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Lawyers have also been seen joining this march.
Reuters has released a video of the protest march in which a large number of people are seen gathering between Mandi House and the Supreme Court.
Many people in the crowd are carrying Congress flags and drums can also be heard.
While marching on foot, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were seen on an open vehicle, on which many opposition leaders were present.
According to BBC correspondent Jugal Purohit present at the spot, the protesters were trying to gather somewhere for several days but on Monday a large number of people reached Barakhamba near Connaught Place.
According to him, before the start of the march, a large number of opposition party workers, protesters, students and people from various organizations including lawyers were present.
From here, all the big opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi boarded a bus and started going towards the Supreme Court. Their effort is to submit a memorandum to the Supreme Court. It is said to include the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and points for improvement in the election process.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also participated in India Block's protest march on Monday.
He said, "Agitations and protests will continue. It is our responsibility to save democracy. The Bharatiya Janata Party, along with the Election Commission, wants to destroy the Constitution and democracy. They want to remain in power forever."
On the question of changing the protest venue, Akhilesh Yadav said, "If the government wants to strengthen democracy then it should provide more places for protests. Changing the protest venue cannot hide the alleged mistakes of the government."
Senior lawyer and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi wrote on Twitter, "We just want to take out a peaceful march, but restrictions have been imposed on it. Recently metro, train and internet services were closed, due to which common people were affected."
"This was a blanket ban already imposed. We would have understood if there had been any vandalism, but no one has done anything. In fact, you are scared. The Constitution gives us the right to protest."
The root of this controversy is the extensive process of updating voter lists across the country. The Election Commission says that this is a routine process to remove dead, double name and ineligible voters from the list.
Till now at least 13 crore names have been removed from the voter lists.
This process has been surrounded by controversies in many states. Thousands of people have alleged that their names have been removed from the voter list by mistake.
CJP and opposition parties allege that Gyanesh Kumar is working in favor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the way of updating the voter list.
However, the Election Commission and BJP have rejected these allegations.
An investigative report by the English newspaper The Indian Express reported that two election commissioners lodged objections '14 times in 10 months' regarding the steps taken by the Election Commission.
It has been told in the report that during the Special Intensive Revision or SIR campaign last year, the Election Commissioners were not informed about many decisions and both the Election Commissioners had repeatedly raised objections to these decisions.
According to the report, "These objections were lodged by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, ranging from keeping themselves in the dark to adding new voters and deleting names and raised questions on 'unauthorized, illegal' steps."
After this report, opposition parties are demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
