Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called on young Indians to sustain their protests at a Saturday gathering, while stating that his party intended to work toward defeating those he held responsible for undermining the Constitution, according to a news channel.

Speaking at the Chhatron Ki Goonj gathering in Chennai, Gandhi argued that cowardice was a characteristic shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh alike. In a post on X, Gandhi described his political opponents as well known to him, having spent more than ten years in direct opposition to both Modi and the RSS. He described his understanding of them as the kind a competitor develops of a rival — thorough, detailed, and built from the inside out.

Gandhi, identified as the Lok Sabha Opposition leader, named Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, election official Gyanesh Kumar, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as figures he contended were facing mounting political pressure, a claim broadcast by a news channel. He separately characterised what he described as the defining trait of those individuals as an absence of courage.

Addressing the government directly, Gandhi stated that neither an expanded police presence nor the detention of opposition members and young protesters would bring the movement to a stop. He outlined possible officer deployment figures ranging from 10,000 up through 20,000 and reaching as high as 50,000.

Calls for the detention of those in positions of leadership have been put forward. Calls for the detention of young people across the board remain without evidentiary basis or legal grounding. A call went out for the detention of everyone involved.

According to a television news outlet, Gandhi stated that those on his side had positioned themselves around the opposing party and had no intention of withdrawing. In a further statement, he contended that the Opposition held sufficient material to mount a defence of the Constitution and uphold the electorate's voice.

In a public address, Gandhi pledged to stand against what he characterised as a sustained erosion of democratic institutions spanning the previous decade and a half. Gandhi voiced backing for the demonstrators, telling the nation's young people he held them in high regard and urging them to continue their activism. One news outlet carried a report in which the phrase "We are standing with you" was presented as words of solidarity attributed to him.

He committed the Opposition to working against the government and those he identified as having undermined the constitutional order. A clip of Gandhi's spoken remarks was subsequently posted to his social media pages.

Around the same time Gandhi made those remarks, protests were under way at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, where members of the Congress Janta Party (CJP) gathered on Saturday to call for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down. Demonstrations over claimed discrepancies in voter registration lists compiled through the Special Intensive Revision process drew protesters into the streets. Protests in Delhi aimed at contesting Gyanesh Kumar's position as Chief Election Commissioner were being dispersed by police around the time the statement was issued.

Over 3,000 people heading toward the demonstration site were taken into custody by Delhi Police. Authorities took more than 600 individuals with prior convictions into custody on a precautionary basis, according to available reports. No authorisation had been issued for the gathering, and orders barring public assembly were already in place across the New Delhi area.