NEW DELHI: Three layers of police barricades stood between the INDIA bloc’s march and the Supreme Court on Monday, as opposition leaders and supporters moved through central Delhi carrying flags and placards. The procession advanced along Barakhamba Road towards Bhagwan Das Road, where security personnel had been positioned to prevent the crowd from proceeding further.
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other opposition leaders led the mobilisation, which came to a halt at a police blockade as the alliance sought to carry its protest over electoral issues to the country’s highest court.
The march, organised under the banner “Chalo Delhi: March for Democracy,” drew political leaders, party workers and student groups into the heart of the capital. The stretch between CP and Mandi House filled steadily with demonstrators through the morning, as security arrangements extended across the surrounding roads in anticipation of the procession’s approach to the court.
Rahul Gandhi led the march alongside his sister Priyanka and Neha Bora, president of the AISA. Other opposition figures joined the procession as it moved, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav. Supporters from the Congress, the IYC, the NSUI and Left-affiliated student groups swelled the crowd as it pushed forward.
The mobilisation carried a visible mix of political workers and students, together behind a wall of flags and placards. At several points, demonstrators were seen climbing onto police vehicles, waving national and party flags as the crowd pressed through barricaded stretches of road, a striking, almost defiant image against the grey backdrop of security cordons.
The route through central Delhi was anything but smooth. Police had installed barricades at multiple points. Demonstrators gathered at the barricades as leaders weighed their next move. At one point, Gandhi climbed atop a truck, joined by Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, rising above the sea of supporters below. The image offered a sharp visual contrast, political leadership elevated above the mass of the crowd it had summoned to the streets.
The police blockade ultimately became the day’s defining feature. Three layers of barricading lined the approach to the court, backed by Delhi Police personnel and additional security forces. Similar security arrangements extended around Bengali Market and other nearby stretches. The crowd was not limited to party workers alone. Students and other citizens joined the mobilisation, while a contingent of lawyers reportedly carried copies of the Constitution through the procession.
Even as the march stalled outside, the opposition’s legal effort moved forward in parallel. A legal team filed a petition in the Supreme Court concerning CEC Gyanesh Kumar, with a small delegation granted access to the court premises to complete the filing, a quiet legal manoeuvre proceeding even as the larger crowd remained locked outside the barricades.
By afternoon, the march had reached its physical limit at Bhagwan Das Road. The supporters had travelled the length of central Delhi together, only to find their path to the SC closed by a wall of police barriers, leaving the day split neatly in two: a procession stopped on the street, and a case quietly filed behind the cordon it could not cross.