Delhi Police detained upwards of 200 people on Sunday — including CPM Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas, who sustained injuries during the process and was subsequently hospitalised — as protests calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation drew wider participation, prompting the Congress Janta Party to announce a planned nationwide mobilisation in response.

Enforcement actions stretched into a second day, even as the Supreme Court had issued directives prohibiting arbitrary detentions and interference with press freedom.

In a post on X, Brittas stated that officers had used physical force against him and that he lost consciousness on the steps of a police bus while being held in custody. He was transported to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where he came under the care of staff. CPM General Secretary M.A. Baby and RJD MP Manoj Jha were among those who visited him there.

Brittas dispatched letters addressed to the President, the Rajya Sabha Chairman, and the Chief Justice of India, each calling for prompt intervention, accountability for the police personnel named in the matter, and a response to what he described as a breach of parliamentary privilege.

The CPM contended that its MP sustained injuries in an attack and was left on the roadside, with the party asserting that Delhi Police had acted beyond any acceptable boundary.

For a second consecutive day, the area around central Delhi was placed under heightened security deployment, while groups of demonstrators moved toward Jantar Mantar in an effort to call for Kumar's removal from office over what they described as irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. When police barred entry to Jantar Mantar, the gathering shifted toward Connaught Place, where confrontations between demonstrators and officers unfolded along the neighbourhood's main thoroughfares and narrower back lanes.

Protesters pressing for Gyanesh Kumar's removal from office advanced against police lines until officers brought the crowd under control and guided those present onto buses that had been stationed nearby. Reporters documenting the protests were taken into custody, while a number of those at the demonstrations sustained injuries during encounters with law enforcement.

Demonstrators levelled complaints of disproportionate force against the police and further contended that individuals affiliated with right-wing organisations had taken part in physically targeting those at the protest. Delhi Police filed twenty FIRs across the two-day period, among them cases tied to reported attacks on officers on duty.

Neha Bora, who holds the presidency of the All India Students' Association, was among those taken into custody after officers pulled her away from a barricade she had been holding onto. The Students' Federation of India contended that women demonstrators — among them its leader Aishe Ghosh — were physically handled by male officers during the protest. The organisation further alleged that Father Biju Xavier, who serves as vicar of Sacred Heart Church, was taken into custody by police while he recorded their operations on camera.

The CJP declared that its protest drive would extend to locations across the nation, with the next phase of demonstrations — described internally as Jantar Mantar 2.0 — formally under way. Protesters declared their presence on the streets and their intention to remain there. At a press conference, Ghosh stated that the Constitution would be followed.

Three CJP figures — Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, and Saurav Das — were released from preventive custody on Sunday and pledged to press on with their campaign until the CEC stepped down. Those issuing calls for political parties to unite around opposition to the SIR exercise framed the matter as one touching on voters' fundamental electoral rights rather than any partisan advantage, and noted that street protests were continuing. Demonstrations were anticipated across the country, extending beyond Delhi.

Ranka stated that the demonstration would continue until Gyanesh stepped down from his position. The Congress party put forward plans for a nationwide agitation on Monday, with Rahul Gandhi, who holds the position of Leader of the Opposition, separately declaring his intention to lead a march to the Supreme Court.

All three CJP individuals were brought before an executive magistrate, at which point they were freed on the condition that they keep the peace over the following twelve months. Following the death of his grandmother on Saturday, Dipke travelled to Nagpur to take part in the funeral proceedings.

Responding to the terms attached to their release, Das noted that the authorities had stipulated a requirement of no breach of peace for the duration of one year. Das contended that the government — through train cancellations, widespread detentions, and restrictions placed on public demonstrations — had manufactured conditions comparable to an emergency, and that dialogue with protesters would have been a more appropriate response than blocking their access to a designated assembly point. Das separately attributed responsibility for the breakdown in public order to Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Gyanesh Kumar.

Ranka invoked the Emergency period of 1975 as a point of comparison, observing that rail services had operated throughout that time, before attributing responsibility to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for what he characterised as a transformation in the protest's nature — away from a challenge directed at the Election Commission and toward one that, in his view, had taken on the quality of a direct confrontation with the government.

With the CJP moving to extend its campaign beyond Delhi, the clashes that unfolded on Sunday offered little indication that the dispute over the CEC's resignation was drawing toward a resolution.