A delegation of INDIA bloc leaders walked from India Gate to the Supreme Court on Monday, where they were scheduled to meet Chief Justice Surya Kant after 4 pm over the dispute surrounding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Opposition parties within the INDIA bloc called on the public to gather in protest on Monday, as their coordinated effort to hold the Election Commission to account continued.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal urged members of the public to join a protest march, calling on them to turn out in large numbers. Venugopal put forward the claim that a nationwide scheme of vote theft, which he referred to as "Vote Chori," had been carried out under the direction of the government. No independent verification has been carried out on that claim, which forms part of the opposition's broader electoral strategy.

Members of the INDIA bloc — spanning elected MPs, party officials, grassroots workers, and ordinary citizens — were expected to join the march, as a group of senior opposition figures prepared to hand a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India requesting judicial intervention.

Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party's top leader, had sat out the two preceding marches but joined the Samajwadi Party's contingent at the latest rally. On multiple occasions, the INDIA bloc staged protests against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, raising concerns about what it described as irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and calling for him to step down.

The day before the planned march, police in Delhi detained thousands of people to prevent a rally at Jantar Mantar that had been organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to call for Kumar's removal from office. A march took place in central Delhi, where authorities had put additional security measures in place ahead of a protest at Jantar Mantar organised by the CJP.

A procession of opposition parliamentarians heading toward the Election Commission was brought to a halt by Delhi Police, with a number of those leaders taken into custody. Yadav was among those taken into custody following the October 6 protest.

Parties in opposition raised objections to the positioning of security personnel and the movement restrictions placed on sections of the capital, contending that those in power were moving to stifle protest activity. Delhi Police's handling of its detained leaders drew a complaint of inhumane treatment from the CJP, while officers pointed to security and public-order considerations as the basis for the preventive measures taken.

What opposition and CJP leaders have put forward are contested assertions, and no independent verification has established them as fact.

A dispute over how the Election Commission operated and whether electoral rolls had been properly revised formed the backdrop against which the opposition chose to take its grievances to the Supreme Court. Petitions placed before the courts by the INDIA bloc drew attention to questions over the Special Intensive Revision process and adjustments being made to voter-roll procedures. Those in opposition contended that the way elections are conducted — and the public trust underpinning them — stood to be compromised by the issue at hand.

Voter enrolment procedures came under the court's scrutiny after the Supreme Court signalled its intention to review Election Commission documentation tied to alterations made to Form 6, the statutory application governing that process.