On a Friday evening, groups of students and protesters gathered at multiple locations across central Delhi, carrying the national flag and voicing slogans, as police maintained a substantial presence and assembly restrictions remained in place. At Connaught Place, scattered groups waving the national flag assembled in response to the 'Lehra Do Tiranga' call, while Abhijeet Dipke of CJP was taken into police custody around the same time. Before long, a portion of Inner Circle had come under the control of demonstrators.
Neha Bora, heading AISA, had earlier announced a 5 pm departure from Mandi House, and the procession set off — joined by fellow AISA members and representatives of Left-aligned organisations — with participants at certain points breaking into a run. A police unit stepped in and brought the group's movement to a halt. Female constables positioned themselves in a cordon around Bora while other officers guided her through the crowd toward a police vehicle waiting nearby.
Four student and youth bodies — SFI, DYFI, AISF, and AIYF — declared their intention to participate in the tiranga march heading to Central Park, as chants rang out separately along Janpath. That same afternoon, a tiranga march organised by AAP took place close to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
By roughly half past six in the evening, demonstration activity had shifted to Janpath, where students affiliated with AISA and allied Left-oriented organisations had assembled, carrying placards and calling out slogans. By five o'clock, with a visible police presence still deployed around CP, clusters of flag-bearing residents had begun to assemble on the pavement fronting Palika Bazaar. Vendors who had gathered at the bazaar voiced objections over financial losses they attributed to the ongoing demonstrations.
Participants in the demonstration — among them members of Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) — moved through Inner Circle calling out slogans, while a separate contingent chose to mark the occasion by posing with the national flag. Access to Central Park was not granted to those wishing to demonstrate there. Officers present in considerable numbers held back from engaging the crowd until roughly 6.30 pm, at which point they began directing those on the scene to disperse. Within ten minutes, the crowd had thinned and people were moving away from the area.
Ishan, a student at Hindu College, carried the national flag through the locality and noted that a number of his fellow students had also made their way to the spot. He described the act as a right belonging to all citizens in a democracy. Questions about whether governments hold the authority to place restrictions on the right to protest have drawn attention from legal scholars and civil liberties advocates alike.
Draped in the national flag, a 19-year-old who goes by Pari arrived at CP around 4.30 pm, an Ambedkar volume held against her side. Her account described a man she identified as a member of a politically oriented group taking the book and leaving the scene. Pari noted that her college had informally advised students to stay away from protests, citing possible effects on their futures, but she told reporters that she intended to keep attending until CEC Gyanesh Kumar stepped down, adding that she had no intention of stopping.
Attendance at the gathering, for a portion of those present, centred on sustaining the movement's momentum and pushing for those responsible to be held to account, with one attendee stating that turning up was itself an act of pursuing change. Individuals found to have committed misconduct face a process of being called to answer for their actions. Abhay, identified as a fellow student, conveyed that the matter at hand extended beyond any single person, pointing instead to the broader structures at play.
Delegates at the gathering held a range of differing positions on whether electoral rolls should undergo SIR. Protesters chanting against the exercise shared the streets with others who openly supported it and the party in power. Members of one organisation turned up at multiple demonstration sites, with representatives stating their purpose was to uphold public order. Alok Tiwari, 27, a Noida resident who described himself as belonging to such a group, was observed in a verbal exchange with a man chanting slogans against SIR, with Tiwari telling those present that the demonstrators were hindering pedestrian movement during the festive period and that he had come to address that.
Jharia, who runs a stall near the Palika Bazaar roundabout and is 59 years old, had a direct stake in the matter. Both of his children found their names absent from the voter registration records. Alongside companions displaying a banner directed at the Election Commission, he questioned aloud what pain comes from having one's vote deleted, then called for the Special Intensive Revision to be withdrawn, clarifying that the demonstration was aimed at the Commission rather than any political party.
Mumaina, a 73-year-old member of the All India Democratic Women's Association who had been taken into custody on 10 October, returned to the protest despite the possibility of further police action, telling reporters that in all her years attending demonstrations, she had never been treated by officers the way she was on that Saturday. Sana, a 32-year-old model who had positioned herself nearby, told those around her that she had returned to the area even after officers had beaten her on two separate occasions — once in July and again in October. She told reporters that after demonstrating at Jantar Mantar, the group had moved its protest onto the surrounding streets once access to that venue was no longer available to them.