On 2 October — Gandhi Jayanti — gatherings in Delhi and Mumbai drew crowds numbering in the hundreds, with those assembled calling for Gyanesh Kumar to step down from his post as Chief Election Commissioner. Public gatherings were prohibited across both cities, authorities detained those who joined demonstrations in the capital, and wide-ranging restrictions on movement and assembly were enforced throughout the affected areas.
Dozens of people who had gathered at Jantar Mantar were detained by authorities. Among those taken into custody were Atishi, who previously served as Delhi's Chief Minister; activist Yogendra Yadav; Neha Bora, who holds the presidency of the All India Students' Association (AISA); Saurabh Bhardwaj, a former Delhi minister and head of the AAP's Delhi unit; and Manoj Jha of the RJD. Those arrested were transported and distributed across a number of separate police facilities.
Questions about how the Election Commission handled the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls — including reports of divisions within the body itself — formed the backdrop against which demonstrations took hold. Protest activity unfolded along parallel tracks: student organisations and civil society bodies gathered in Delhi, while the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party held its own separate demonstration in Mumbai. Calls for Kumar's removal came from both sides, with each contending that the Election Commission's conduct had weakened the integrity of the voting process. The Commission has denied any political slant in its decision-making.
Metal barriers arranged in several consecutive lines across Tolstoy Marg, Janpath Road, and Sansad Marg — the three main routes converging on Jantar Mantar — prevented protesters from entering the designated demonstration zone. Under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), prohibitory measures took effect across the New Delhi district, barring gatherings of five or more people that lacked official authorisation.
Closures brought disruptions to a stretch of Delhi Metro's network, with no fewer than a dozen stations taken out of service — among them Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Janpath, Patel Chowk, and Mandi House. Connectivity problems were also noted in the vicinity of Jantar Mantar.
Small groups assembled at various points, raising protest chants, before being taken into police custody — all while bans on public gatherings remained active. Members of AAP, Congress, AISA, and allied student groups took part in the rally. Officers stationed along the route kept the crowd from reaching Parliament Street and Jantar Mantar, while a group of around 50 to 60 people held their ground near Janpath. Bora, an AISA activist, was able to step off a police bus after a crowd of demonstrators brought the vehicle to a halt.
Prior notice of the meeting had been circulated by student leaders and civil society figures — Bora, advocate Prashant Bhushan, and Jha among them — who were seeking answers from Kumar on what they characterised as discrepancies in how the electoral rolls had been revised. A day before the crowd gathered at Jantar Mantar, Atishi and Sanjay Singh of AAP issued a joint call urging members of the public to attend. No authorisation for the event was forthcoming from Delhi Police.
The Cockroach Janta Party, under the leadership of Abhijeet Dipke, announced a 'Jail Bharo Andolan' to be held at Shivaji Park in Dadar, with the gathering set to get under way at 4 pm on Friday. The rally went ahead despite Mumbai Police declining to grant permission for the venue. Among the reasons put forward by police were regulations attached to Shivaji Park, along with the potential for noise disruption, vehicle congestion, and the need to maintain clear routes to nearby medical facilities. A fresh venue search was requested of the organisers, along with a new application to follow.
Activists from CJP and civil society organisations had assembled at Shivaji Park that morning, with a substantial police contingent stationed on the grounds. Details on the size and result of the afternoon rally, scheduled for 4 pm, had not been confirmed by the time this report went to press.
The group's submission rested on four planks: that Kumar vacate his position, that the SIR process be brought to a halt, that voter rolls revert to their January 2025 state, and that the law passed in 2023 governing how Election Commission members are appointed be repealed. Calls for a more open and accountable appointment process have also been part of the push. Plans to carry the campaign into Goa, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Ranchi — with Delhi targeted at a later stage — were put forward by the group.
The demonstrations came in the wake of a broadcast investigation, dated 23 September, in which two Election Commission members — Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi — were found to have placed their objections on record no fewer than 14 times across a ten-month span, covering disputes tied to voter rolls, registration procedures, and the Commission's own digital infrastructure. The probe found that both commissioners had flagged objections to a number of decisions and expressed unease about actions they said were carried out without their knowledge or sign-off.
Pressure on Kumar to step down spread through student organisations, civil society groups, and opposition parties after newly released information drew attention to his conduct in the role. At the heart of the dispute sits the SIR exercise, a voter-roll audit that protesters argue removed qualified registrants from the rolls without adequate grounds. The Election Commission has stated that its proposed voter roll revisions are designed to remove duplicate records, entries for people who have died, and registrations that no longer meet eligibility criteria — with no particular political group singled out for removal. Divergent views within the Commission have been characterised by the body as a routine feature of internal deliberation, with any notion of institutional breakdown set aside.
