No one sought permission, says Delhi Police ahead of Oppn protest march to EC office

New Delhi: Ahead of the opposition's march to the Election Commission over "poll fraud", Delhi Police on Monday said no one has sought permission for holding the protest.

Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc MPs led by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and floor leaders of other parties will begin the march to the Election Commission (EC) from Parliament at 11:30 am.

No one has sought permission for the protest march, a senior police official said.

Security has been tightened in Delhi ahead of the protest march.

Barricades have been erected at multiple points along the route and police personnel have been deployed to maintain order and prevent any untoward incident, the official said.

Additional security vehicles and quick reaction teams have also been stationed in the vicinity of the EC office and surrounding roads to ensure smooth traffic flow.

At a press conference last week, Gandhi made explosive claims of a "huge criminal fraud" in polls through "collusion" between the ruling BJP and the EC, as he cited an analysis in a constituency in Karnataka and said it was "a crime against the Constitution".

He claimed that over 1 lakh votes in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka were found to be fake, duplicate, bulk voters, with invalid addresses and new voters added with misuse of Form 6.