Senior figures within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — including former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and party general secretary M A Baby — were taken into custody by police before reaching Jantar Mantar, where a demonstration calling for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had been organised.

Three of the figures travelling toward Jantar Mantar — Pinarayi Vijayan, MP John Brittas, and KN Balagopal, who previously held the Kerala Finance Minister portfolio — were detained by Delhi Police along the route.

The CPI(M), CPI, and Aam Aadmi Party each confirmed their participation in a demonstration against the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision exercise, even as the Congress party chose to remain absent from the gathering.

Police stopped Baby, M V Govindan, PK Sreemathy, Brinda Karat, KK Shailaja, and P Rajeev of CPI(M) at the entrance of Kerala Bhavan, taking them into custody before their intended march to Jantar Mantar could get under way. At the outset, officers moved to detain a number of CPI(M) leaders, though Pinarayi, John Brittas, and Balagopal were not among those taken into custody at that stage.

Walking toward Jantar Mantar, the three leaders found themselves in a dispute with officers who blocked their path. Insisting they had acted in full compliance with its terms, the leaders pushed back against any suggestion that their conduct amounted to a breach of the Section 163 order, which placed a cap on gatherings of more than four persons. Officers detained the individuals shortly afterwards.

Pinarayi Vijayan, who also serves as Kerala's Opposition Leader, told journalists that steps were being taken to undermine the democratic process by which voters select their representatives. He stated that roughly 130 million people had found themselves unable to cast a ballot, and that the work attributed to Gyanesh Kumar was carried out on behalf of the government.

Pinarayi also alleged that the administration was deploying measures of questionable legality in an effort to shield Gyanesh from scrutiny. He maintained that the protest would continue, describing the situation as one unfolding within a democracy rather than a police state, and attributing the unrest to what he characterised as a lack of respect for democratic principles on the part of the government in power.

Brittas made clear that yielding to outside pressure was not something the group intended to do.

Three leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party — Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, and Saurav Dass — were taken into custody by Delhi Police upon the aircraft's arrival at the capital's airport. Police also took Dhruv Rathee and Ratna Singh into custody on Saturday morning, along with other figures at the forefront of the protest.