Gatherings calling for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over what participants described as irregularities in the electoral process drew crowds of several hundred people — among them student activists and opposition political figures — to multiple locations in central Delhi on Friday, with many in attendance carrying the national flag. Roughly 150 people attending the gatherings and a planned 'Lehra Do Tiranga' march were taken into custody by officers who had been deployed in considerable numbers across the area.
Rallies called for by the Congress Janta Party (CJP) fanned out through Connaught Place, Palika Bazaar, and Mandi House. Demonstrators who converged on the venue waved the national flag, raised their voices in collective chants, and demanded the abolition of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Delhi Police withheld authorisation for a Citizens for Justice and Peace march set for 5 pm at Central Park in Connaught Place, citing prohibitory provisions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita — a legal framework that restricts mass assemblies within Connaught Place and its adjoining areas. On both Friday and Saturday, the park's entrances remained closed to the public while authorities rolled out a set of heightened security arrangements.
Abhijeet Dipke, who founded CJP, was taken into custody by authorities as he stepped out of his home in the Jhandewalan neighbourhood to make his way to the demonstration. Prior to the planned march, he was also taken into custody at the home of Anish Gawande, who serves as a spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction. Dipke was informed by a law enforcement officer that preventive custody would apply to him on the grounds that active restrictions were then in place across Connaught Place.
A security presence of more than 6,000 Delhi Police officers, alongside 220 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) companies — each numbering roughly 100 personnel — was positioned throughout the New Delhi area to maintain public order.
Some demonstrators bearing a large Tricolour flag made repeated circuits of Connaught Place's inner ring, while others mounted barricades holding flags, banners, and placards. Chants of "Jai Hind", "Inquilab Zindabad", and "Gyanesh Kumar, ab tumhari baari hai" rang out through the area as the gathering shifted across multiple points, breaking apart and reforming in clusters while law enforcement worked to move people on. Placards carried by those gathered bore messages such as 'SIR band karo, vote chori band karo', 'Who deleted my vote', and 'Police violence is not an accident'.
Portions of the crowd broke into the national anthem, while others directed chants at the Election Commission and pressed for action on electoral roll revisions. Officers fanned out across the central area, working to disperse the gathering of demonstrators and bystanders that had built up there. Scuffles flared at several points as officers worked to move the crowd along.
Foot traffic at Connaught Place and Palika Bazaar thinned noticeably as gatherings and access controls took hold, with vendors in both areas reporting a knock-on effect on their daily takings. Coverage of the demonstrations drew both traditional news outlets and independent YouTube creators, though some of the latter encountered verbal hostility from bystanders.
Among those at the demonstration was Taksh, a 21-year-old DY Patil University student from Mumbai, who arrived dressed in a red lehenga and carried a placard bearing the message: 'Gyanesh Kumar jaldi istifa do, shaadi ka muhurat nikalta jaa raha hai'. Taksh stated that his stay in Delhi had stretched across roughly a month, during which he took part in the protests while keeping up with his university coursework through online classes. He noted that the lehenga had cost him Rs 2,000 at the time of purchase.
Members drawn from four left-leaning student and youth organisations — the Students' Federation of India, the Democratic Youth Federation of India, the All India Students' Federation, and the All India Youth Federation — took part in a Tiranga March held in the capital. Members of the SFI and the All India Students' Association gathered at Mandi House, putting forward three demands: that Kumar vacate his post, that the SIR process be rolled back, and that the Election Commissioner Appointment Act of 2023 be repealed.
Two parliamentarians — John Brittas of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Sandosh Kumar of the Communist Party of India — took part in the procession together with activists from the Democratic Youth Federation of India. Brittas stated that the protesters had made their way to Connaught Place in spite of Delhi Police restrictions, adding that officers had indicated no one would be allowed entry to the area. The group stated that it had proceeded in defiance of a Delhi Police prohibition on their activity. Brittas argued that those with a stake in the matter should be left to manage what lies within their own remit.
Members of AAP, along with party workers, took part in the gathering at Central Park, where the rally went ahead even though organisers had not received the necessary authorisation.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee posted on X to flag the police detention of CJP activist Abhijeet Dipke, noting in her message that he had been apprehended while holding the Indian National Flag. She stated that, under India's democratic system, young people had been taken into custody for expressing their political views through lawful means. Banerjee characterised the situation as an "undeclared emergency," alleging that the authorities were taking steps to pressure young people and stifle opposition voices, and argued in a statement that a government made uneasy by dissent was working to push an entire generation toward silence. She described the behaviour as consistent with a government that moves to silence any voice it cannot bring under its authority.
Banerjee described Dipke, Ashutosh, and Saurav as embodying the determination, moral awareness, and hopes that define young people across India. She stated that suppressing the voice of an entire generation would not prevent that generation from being heard, and called for the country to take notice of what was unfolding. She indicated that her commitment to pressing ahead on the issues of democratic rights, individual freedoms, and the ability to challenge authority without penalty remained firm.
The protests unfolded alongside a wider party-led push against the SIR process, which has drawn accusations of electoral fraud. Calls for accountability directed at the Election Commission — alongside formal objections to the revision of electoral rolls — have come from a coalition spanning opposition leaders, student bodies, and activists.
