BJP president Nitin Nabin on Friday put forward the claim that Opposition parties were working toward a change of government with backing from outside the country. Separately, Delhi Police took Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke into custody ahead of a Tiranga march he had planned at Connaught Place.

Remarks by lawyer Prashant Bhushan — connecting protests over voter rolls to calls for a change in government — set off a new round of political dispute. Writing an X post, Nabin argued that the wording protesters had chosen laid bare what they were actually after.

In the post, he invoked the term "Urban Naxals" to characterise what he portrayed as a coordinated push to undermine India through ties with unspecified outside actors, though no particular foreign entity was named. Nabin argued that the drive mounted by the Opposition had nothing to do with reforming how elections are run, revising voter rolls through the Special Intensive Revision process, or securing opportunities for younger generations.

In the same post, he contended that the group's leaders were using manufactured unrest as a tool to build political power, arguing that genuine democratic authority derives from votes cast at the ballot box rather than pressure applied through street-level disorder.

Those statements came after Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer practising before the Supreme Court, addressed a Thursday press conference where CJP leaders and student activists were also present. Bhushan described how the protest movement — originally centred on calls for a fair electoral process — had shifted into a broader push for a change of government, a characterisation he offered against the backdrop of police action directed at demonstrators.

Pursuing a change in government, Bhushan contended, fell within the bounds of legitimate democratic practice. Opposing those who hold authority, he contended, carries a different character than working against the foundations of the state itself.

Dipke was arrested as he stepped out of a Karol Bagh address where he had been staying — the home of Anish Gawande, who serves as a spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction — with officers waiting outside at the time of his apprehension. An officer informed Dipke that orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were active in the Connaught Place area, to which Dipke responded by questioning what rule he had violated as a person on his own, before being detained.

Officers moved to disperse those who had gathered near Connaught Place ahead of a 5 pm flag-waving demonstration organised under the CJP's 'Lehra Do Tiranga' banner. A notice delivered to Dipke by officers before the march took place stated that those behind the event had arranged a public gathering without the required authorisation.

Among the grounds listed in the notice were traffic build-up, the potential for disruption to nearby businesses and emergency vehicle access, and a history of gatherings that officers had linked to breaches of public-order rules.

Ahead of Friday's events, the New Delhi area was placed under a security arrangement drawing on upwards of 6,000 Delhi Police officers alongside 220 companies drawn from the Central Armed Police Forces. On 16 and 17 October, Central Park was shut down by the New Delhi Municipal Council, with administrative grounds offered as the basis for the decision.

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court chose not to halt the planned protest, entering on the record a commitment from police that the gathering would be managed in an orderly manner. In place of authorising a mass gathering, Delhi Police put forward an arrangement under which 11 people could raise a flag at an agreed venue.

Five days of judicial custody were handed to CJP members Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka after the two entered Jantar Mantar, an area where protest activity had been placed under restrictions, and that detention order prompted the organising of the march. Three demands have been put forward by the collective: freedom for those detained, reinstatement of Jantar Mantar as an authorised site for public demonstrations, and the stepping down of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Protesters have argued that the SIR process removed eligible voters from the rolls while giving the BJP an electoral edge. Denials of any partisan influence came from the Election Commission, which also noted that voters dropped from the rolls by mistake retain the option to re-register.