What are Rahul Gandhi allegations against the Election Commission?
A political row has erupted in India over allegations of "vote theft", with opposition parties accusing the country's election body of irregularities, which they say favoured the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.
On Tuesday, parliament was adjourned after opposition MPs demanded a debate on the integrity of India's electoral process.
A day earlier, dozens of opposition leaders, including Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, were briefly detained by the police in the capital Delhi, as they tried to march to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) headquarters.
Gandhi first raised the issue at a 7 August press conference in Delhi, and has since managed to galvanise strong support from hundreds of opposition lawmakers.
The Election Commission and the BJP have aggressively rejected the allegations
What have the ECI and BJP said?
Soon after Gandhi's press conference, ECI responded on social media platform X, calling his allegations "absurd" and denying many of his claims.
The polling body has demanded that he either submit a signed declaration under oath or apologise to the nation.
ECI's Karnataka state unit further said that the Congress didn't file formal objections when the electoral roll was being revised ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
The poll body earlier said it keeps CCTV footage only for 45 days after results - the window for filing election disputes.
BJP leaders have also strongly rebutted the allegations.
"This anarchy is extremely worrying and dangerous for democracy," BJP leader and federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
Federal agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Gandhi and the opposition alliance were "defaming democracy, tearing it to shreds, and tampering with the dignity of constitutional institutions".