The All India Trinamool Congress has scheduled a procession through Kolkata on Tuesday, 13 October, routing from Rajabazar to Park Circus, where participants are set to call for the removal and prosecution of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Set for 2.00 pm and timed ahead of Durga Puja, the procession is anticipated to bring together party members and supporters as demonstrations directed at the Election Commission of India and the central government continue across various parts of the country.

Organisers framed the event as a demonstration against what they portrayed as federal attempts to limit political freedoms. Among the actions the party has voiced opposition to are the detention of Mamata Banerjee in Delhi and what it characterises as the suppression of political opponents and young demonstrators.

Banerjee was scheduled to return to Kolkata after attending INDIA bloc protests in Delhi and could potentially take part in the march upon her return. Whether she will participate has not been confirmed. Party leadership indicated the planned demonstration would proceed with or without her.

Subhashis Chakraborty, a former Rajya Sabha member and senior party figure, indicated that taking the protest onto the streets remained a firm intention, while noting that whether authorities would grant permission for the rally had yet to be confirmed. He added that the protest rally would go ahead as planned, with the organisation's leadership expected to attend. No decision had been reached on whether Kolkata Police would authorise the request.

Along the planned corridor — threading through Rajabazar, CIT Road, and Park Circus — vehicle volumes tend to climb in the run-up to Durga Puja, reflecting the congestion already typical of those densely travelled stretches. Pandal inaugurations were under way and attendees were gathering across Kolkata, placing officials in a position where they would need to weigh crowd and traffic management alongside the accommodation of peaceful protest.

Party officials from the AITC maintained that the rally posed no threat to the ongoing celebrations. Safeguarding civil liberties, they argued, remained a standing concern that the Puja festival period did not suspend. Calls went out to the party's wings covering students, youth, women, and labour to take part, as neighbourhood representatives and rank-and-file members took to the streets from Monday onward to drive up participation.

Tamoghna Ghosh, who heads the BJP's North Kolkata district unit, characterised Trinamool as a party that had lost its political standing, and said people in Kolkata and across the state had expressed little apparent connection to the group's actions or inactions. Ghosh put forward the BJP's position that the planned rally held no merit.

The planned rally forms part of a broader campaign directed at Gyanesh Kumar, with Left-leaning student groups joining street demonstrations in Kolkata in a show of solidarity with those protesting in Delhi. A BJP spokesperson stated that the organisation had no intention of engaging with or commenting on what they described as a politically inconsequential group.

On Sunday, members of three student bodies — the Students' Federation of India, the All India Students' Association, and the All India Democratic Students' Organisation — marched together in a joint demonstration demanding the chief election commissioner's resignation. Protesters on a route running from Sealdah through to Dharmatala carried banners and placards voicing opposition to Kumar and urging the safeguarding of democratic values.

Participants brought rap performances, satirical placards, and chants along the route, among them the phrases "Gyanesh, it's done bro!" and "Vote chor, gaddi chhor" — a slogan translating roughly as "vote thief, quit your seat." A number of attendees wore skeleton masks during the march. Participants brought the procession to a close by chanting "BJP, quit India."

By roughly half past four in the afternoon, the marching column had reached Dharmatala, bringing vehicle movement across the area to a halt. A short gathering followed on Rani Rashmoni Road, where Left party figures addressed those assembled while a substantial police presence looked on.

Addressing supporters, SFI state secretary Debanjan Dey contended that democratic rights were being steadily undermined by those in authority, and drew a parallel between the present public mood and the spirit that had once animated the Quit India movement. Dey urged the BJP to step aside, drawing on the language of the Quit India movement as a point of reference.

Demonstrations drew figures from across the opposition into a shared political front. Under the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan banner, Moulali Yuba Kendra hosted a Sunday gathering that brought together politicians from multiple parties — among them AITC's Saugata Roy, CPI(M)'s Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, and Congress's Prasenjit Bose — alongside lawyers, activists, and other political voices.

Roy contended that coordinated public mobilisation could press Kumar into stepping aside, and that the same civic activity held the capacity to loosen the governing party's grip on its political position. Delegates at the gathering put forward three demands: that Kumar step down, that the electoral framework be reformed, and that steps be taken over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.