Hundreds of people gathered around the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Parliament Square in London on Saturday for a protest organised jointly by the Opposition Congress party and Indian student associations based in the United Kingdom, where attendees raised objections to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
At the "Stop Vote Chori" gathering, activist Dhruv Rathee took the podium as the headline speaker, while a separate group positioned near the Gandhi statue directed chants of "Modi, Modi" toward the event — the two sides held apart by a Metropolitan Police presence throughout.
Tensions between the two groups rose as each side attempted to overpower the other's chants, with one declaring opposition to outside involvement in their affairs.
Rathee told the crowd gathered at Parliament Square — an audience of Indians and non-resident Indians — that countering what he described as "vote chori," or electoral theft, back home was a message worth carrying forward, speaking throughout in Hindi. He stated that the demonstrations would come to an end once a mutually agreed-upon appointment — one acceptable to both the government and the Leader of the Opposition — took the place of the incumbent Chief Election Commissioner.
Before his address got under way, the gathering voiced chants of "Inquilab Zindabad" and "Vande Mataram," and a recitation of the Indian Constitution's preamble was carried out.
Backing for the demonstration came from the Indian Overseas Congress Youth wing as lead organiser, with additional support drawn from diaspora-based platforms — among them Save Democracy, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) UK, and the South Asia Solidarity Group.
A notice from India Diaspora (ID) UK called on supporters described as "Bharat Premi Janta" in London to assemble at the location of a planned counter-protest. Addressing an audience at the event, ID UK founder Hirdesh Gupta conveyed that Indian diaspora communities throughout Britain broadly support the Indian government's drive toward national cohesion and economic development — a statement delivered one day after a separate, smaller gathering of protesters and counter-protesters had converged near the Indian High Commission in London.
Saturday's rally forms part of a continuing sequence of gatherings that began with a Tuesday event convened under the banner of an "Emergency Protest," with participants pressing for the ouster of Gyanesh Kumar and the cancellation of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in India.
According to the Election Commission, the purpose of the exercise is to bring electoral rolls up to date by removing entries for people who have died, appear more than once, have relocated, or no longer qualify for other reasons.
