A rally convened by Citizens for Justice and Peace at Mumbai's Shivaji Park on 2 October 2026 — the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi — drew thousands of attendees who voiced objections to what they described as discrepancies in voter rolls and to the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision exercise.

Several dozen people assembled outside Shivaji Park in Dadar — a ground with a long history of public gatherings — waving the national flag, to demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. No permit from local authorities had been obtained for the event.

Four individuals affiliated with CJP — conveners Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, and Saurav Das, along with legal affairs head Ratna Singh — addressed the gathered crowd.

Chants calling for the official's resignation — including the phrases "Ek Jeera, Do Ajwain, Gyanesh karo resign" and "Gyanu kaka… rajinama dya, rajinama dya" — rang out alongside the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad." Patriotic music, including the song Rang De Basanti, was played at the gathering.

The organisation put forward a cluster of interconnected demands: that Gyanesh Kumar step down from his post as Chief Election Commissioner, that criminal proceedings be launched to establish who authorised the voter-roll exercise under scrutiny, that the Special Intensive Revision process be halted, that the voters list from January 2025 be restored, and that the 2023 legislation governing how Election Commissioners are appointed be struck down in favour of a fresh appointment framework built around transparency and civil society involvement.

Speaking to those gathered, Ashutosh Ranka urged attendees to remain untroubled by the prospect of legal consequences, noting that detention held no cause for alarm among those present. He told those present that attempts at intimidation would not deter them from their course.

Ranka went on to characterise the Mumbai gathering as laying the groundwork for a follow-up demonstration set to take place at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Actor Shabana Azmi and musician Vishal Dadlani were among those who attended the demonstration. One speaker at the event argued that the franchise has historically been held up as a foundational right, and that any attempt to strip it away invites people onto the streets in response. Azmi argued that the constitutional framework of the country grants residents that entitlement, and that such circumstances should not have to be accepted.

Gangadhar Menon, a 70-year-old teacher at Somaiya College who joined the protest, noted that while concerns about VVPAT — the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail — had been raised before, the issue had now extended considerably further than prior discussions had indicated.

Rajiv Nigam, a comedian who also addressed the gathering, told those present that democracy forms the very foundation of the nation's identity. Ballot access, he said, stands as the mechanism through which civic participation translates into political representation.

NCP leader Anish Gawande, who took part in the protest, told those gathered that the Special Intensive Revision exercise had left certain groups without electoral representation — among them flood-affected residents from Assam who lacked documentation, and transgender individuals without identity cards, both of whose names had been dropped from voter rolls, according to his account.

According to an officer stationed at the scene from the Dadar area, crowd numbers at that point stood somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000, with roughly 800 personnel from the police force on the ground, including units trained for crowd management.