Organisers from the Campaign for Justice and Peace have scheduled a follow-up rally at Jantar Mantar for Sunday at 10 am, with the group indicating that its campaign directed at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will continue — a day after Delhi Police placed upwards of 7,000 people in custody during a broad wave of detentions across the capital on Saturday.

Speaking at a post-detention press conference, Ajinkya Shinde — the CJP's national organisation in-charge — told reporters that the movement had no intention of withdrawing, adding that authorities had apparently expected the day's arrests to send protesters home. He stated that the detentions reflected a fear indicating the movement had already gained ground, and that protests would continue regardless of how many people were held, until Gyanesh Kumar stepped down. Shinde called on those gathered to return to Jantar Mantar at 10 am the following day, adding that large attendance was needed and that the demonstration should continue even if police intervened at any stage.

Demonstrations by the Students' Federation of India and allied student groups were set to carry on, organisers indicated, until the listed demands had been addressed. Abhijeet Dipke and Saurav Das, both founders of CJP, remained in police custody as Saturday evening drew to a close, while the bulk of those detained elsewhere across the city had by then been released.

By late Saturday, entry points throughout the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's network had been reopened, bringing a 25-hour closure — imposed ahead of the demonstration — to its end. Passenger connections between stations were also restored across all interchange points.

Delhi Police detained more than 7,000 people across the city during the operation, a group that included Abhijeet Dipke of CJP, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, and four state chief ministers from opposition parties — Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, and Manik Sarkar of Tripura. Officers stationed at various points throughout the city intercepted groups of demonstrators before they could gather at Jantar Mantar, where the protest had been scheduled to take place.

By 6 am, vehicle routes had been redirected at 30 locations across the city, several metro stations had closed, mobile internet connectivity had been cut in central Delhi, and rail services carrying passengers from other states into the capital had been withdrawn — all in advance of the planned demonstration.

Over 400 people drawn from a broad range of groups — including Bollywood actor Imran Khan, who is Aamir Khan's nephew, alongside those affiliated with activist Tushar Gandhi's organisation and supporters of the CPI-M — were detained during the CJP rally at August Kranti Maidan. Party members affiliated with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, the outfit led by Prakash Ambedkar, were taken into custody near Hutatma Chowk in the southern part of Mumbai, in a separate group.

Two Delhi Police officers sustained injuries during the unrest. Sub-Inspector Jadhav reported being shoved by protesters in the course of making arrests, identifying that incident as the source of his injury, and was counted among the officers who were harmed.

Banerjee, who leads the West Bengal government, gave an account of her detention. Positioned at a nearby bus stand after being told they could not proceed further, she and the other protesters adapted to a police restriction barring assemblies of three or more people by spreading themselves out across the area — a workaround she described by noting that the groups of three sat apart from one another. Within roughly a minute, those present were escorted by force into a prison van and taken away. Speaking to reporters about her arrest and transfer into a police van, she described the experience as one she had never faced before. Over roughly two hours, she recounted, the vehicle carrying them was redirected from one police station to the next, each location turning them away for lack of capacity.

Banerjee drew a parallel between the current situation in Delhi and the 1975 period when Indira Gandhi's government formally curtailed civil liberties, arguing that conditions today had moved past even that historical threshold.

Sonam Wangchuk, who describes himself as a climate activist and education reformer and has staged hunger strikes over Ladakh-related grievances in recent years, characterised the detention of student and youth leaders as bearing the hallmarks of an undeclared state of emergency. He called for the detention campaign to be halted and for the underlying issues to be addressed through negotiated conversation. Wangchuk indicated he might pursue a peaceful sit-in, hunger strike, or march — in Leh or Delhi — should the restrictions remain in place past a 24-hour deadline.

Held in Mumbai, Bollywood actor Imran Khan told authorities that he had come forward as a private individual, unaffiliated with any group, and that he carried no list of demands. He described his presence as rooted in his identity as a member of that community and a resident of the city, and said questions about restrictions on movement and the silencing of dissent had motivated his attendance. He stated that he was not in a position to place demands on others and that he held no affiliation with any organisation. He described his role as that of a delegate acting on behalf of others rather than on his own account.

Rahul Gandhi addressed students who had faced police action at protests, urging them to set aside their fears, to defend their convictions without wavering, and to continue questioning the world around them. In his view, both the internet blackout and the scale of the police presence amounted to a response that went beyond what the situation warranted.

Rekha Gupta, Delhi's chief minister, disputed the characterisation of Saturday's proceedings as government overreach. She alleged that Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal had worked in concert with what she identified as an affiliated organisation within the CJP, with the aim of converting Delhi into a site of civil unrest. Her position was that demonstrations lacking police authorisation had no right to bring the capital to a standstill.

A notice from Delhi Traffic Police, released on Saturday evening, flagged the likelihood of travel disruptions across New Delhi and central Delhi on Sunday, tied to the public-order conditions then prevailing. Traffic diversions across nine zones — taking in Jantar Mantar, Sansad Marg, Connaught Place, Mandi House, Rail Bhawan, Patel Chowk, Dhaula Kuan, Lodhi Road, and Sardar Patel Marg — were set to be activated from 6 am, subject to conditions on the ground at that time. People heading into central Delhi — whether bound for a railway station, the inter-state bus terminal, or the airport — were urged to build extra time into their journeys. Advisories urging people to limit journeys deemed unnecessary were also issued.

At the centre of the week's events sits a demand that has remained unchanged since the movement first took shape: both the INDIA bloc and the CJP are calling on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down, pointing to what they describe as procedural irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. No statement addressing the call for his resignation had been issued by the Election Commission at the time of reporting. The government put forward its own account of the Special Intensive Revision exercise, contesting the characterisation advanced by the opposition.

The Campaign for Justice and Peace confirmed plans to gather once more at Jantar Mantar, with the group set to convene there at 10 am on Sunday.