New Delhi: A day after police removed hundreds of demonstrators from central Delhi, the agitation seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s removal is set to return to Jantar Mantar on Saturday. All India Students’ Association (AISA) national president Neha Bora urged activists not to retreat after Friday’s crackdown, saying the movement over voting rights would continue.
“All comrades, please return to Jantar Mantar and stand together for democracy and our right to vote. Do not be intimidated. Do not be silenced. Our peaceful protest continues,” Bora said.
Her appeal followed a day of sweeping detentions around the protest venue, where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), AISA, Students’ Federation of India (SFI), National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Indian Youth Congress and allied outfits had attempted to assemble against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Detentions And Restrictions
Police said close to 1,000 people were taken into custody across the capital, with roughly 750 picked up from areas near Jantar Mantar and another 400 from other parts of Delhi during the day. Former Delhi chief minister Atishi, AAP leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj and Sanjay Singh, Bora, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav and several student activists were among those detained.
The authorities had refused clearance for the gathering. Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita remained in force across New Delhi district, barring unauthorised assemblies, marches, demonstrations, picketing and dharnas.
Security was intensified across the Lutyens’ zone, with thousands of police and paramilitary personnel deployed and more than 10 companies of central forces brought in. Mobile internet services were disrupted around Jantar Mantar, while the Delhi Metro shut entry and exit at several stations, including Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Janpath, Mandi House and New Delhi, as part of the arrangements, as reported by Mint .
Police sources said there were minor confrontations at a few spots as officers prevented groups from moving towards the venue, and some personnel received minor injuries. Many detainees were released later in the day.
Mumbai Rally, Next Mobilisation
The Delhi action coincided with a large CJP-led gathering at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Gandhi Jayanti, where supporters demanded Kumar’s resignation over the SIR exercise and alleged irregularities in voter lists, reports said. Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke later announced a fresh mobilisation in the national capital if the CEC remained in office.
“If Gyanesh Kumar doesn’t resign, cockroaches from across India will march to Delhi & protest at Jantar Mantar on October 10,” Dipke said in a post on X.
He added: “If Delhi Police tries to stop us, wherever they stop us will become our Jantar Mantar.”
Describing the proposed action as peaceful, Dipke wrote: “Ours will be a peaceful andolan. We will walk on the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi.”
He further said: “This is a fight to save our democracy. Every citizen who wants free & fair elections must join.”
The protests have been fuelled by an Indian Express report stating that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections on 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions and orders issued in the Commission’s name, including those connected with Form 6 and ECINet. The Election Commission has maintained that all SIR-related decisions were taken unanimously by its three-member panel.
With Bora calling supporters back to Jantar Mantar and the CJP planning another Delhi protest on October 10, the confrontation over the electoral-roll revision appears set to continue.