Authorities detained scores of demonstrators across New Delhi as opposition-aligned groups assembled to demand the removal of the country's chief electoral officer, citing what they characterised as discrepancies in voter registration records. Supporters drawn from the ranks of AAP, Congress, and Left-affiliated organisations were present among the demonstrators who gathered at Jantar Mantar.
Authorities in the New Delhi district withheld authorisation for the gathering and put a series of movement restrictions in place, pointing to concerns about public order. Footage captured officers physically removing Atishi, a senior AAP leader and former chief minister, from the location. Footage also captured officers lifting Saurabh Bhardwaj, who heads the AAP's Delhi unit, off the ground at the demonstration site before taking him away.
Figures from unnamed sources put the number of people taken into custody during the protest at upwards of 700. Each individual was transported to a separate police station located outside the New Delhi area, where processing through the required documentation and legal procedures will precede their discharge.
Demonstrations over the functioning of the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — a process that removed millions of voters deemed inactive from electoral rolls nationwide — form the core grievance driving the unrest. Calls for Chief Electoral Officer Gyanesh Kumar to step down gained traction following a report published the previous month by a television news outlet, which indicated that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on multiple occasions to a number of decisions made by the Election Commission.
The findings gave fresh momentum to opposition allegations of electoral fraud, while the EC maintained that its voter-roll review had been conducted properly and that disagreements among commissioners reflected a routine diversity of perspectives.
The Congress of Janta Party (CJP) staged a rally in Mumbai as well, with authorities positioning a substantial number of officers around Shivaji Park in response to the crowd of protesters that gathered there. A gathering of thousands assembled in Mumbai for the CJP demonstration, proceeding without the authorisation that police had withheld. Crowd members who had assembled near Dadar railway station found their path to Shivaji Park unblocked despite the access barriers positioned along the connecting roads.
Addressing a gathering held on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke remarked that the occasion itself stood as a fitting tribute to the independence-era leader, adding that every person present embodied the spirit Gandhi represented. He went on to say that Gandhi's legacy endures beyond death.
Banners demanding Kumar's removal from office were raised alongside the national flag by those present. Among those who attended were actors Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, musician Vishal Dadlani, and Tushar Gandhi, a great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
Officers moved in to clear demonstrators affiliated with the CJP from the area where they had gathered. Officers intercepted a vehicle transporting assembly materials bound for the demonstration and took apart a makeshift platform that had been set up at the site. Permission for a platform was granted only to accommodate audio equipment.
The BJP organised a rival demonstration in the Fort area, where state minister Ashish Shelar described the CJP protest as amounting to what he termed a "grammar of anarchy."
Members of the AAP gathered in Jaipur to call for greater openness in how the SIR process is conducted. Tensions at the demonstration led to physical confrontations between party members and law enforcement officers. A memorandum was handed to the governor by senior figures within the party.
Protesters gathered near the Gujarat University campus in Ahmedabad, calling for Kumar to step down without delay.
