Delhi, Mumbai turn up the heat on CEC with protests
The national Capital and Mumbai witnessed major protests for the third day in a row on Sunday as thousands gathered in Jantar Mantar in Delhi and for a march in Mumbai lead by the Thackeray cousins demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The Delhi Police registered three FIRs against protestors on Sunday.
On Sunday morning in Delhi, protestors began gathering near Andhra Bhawan Circle on Ashoka Road and marched towards Jantar Mantar, raising slogans against the Election Commission of India (ECI). Police stopped the protest with heavy barricading and detained several protesters, including Neha Bora of AISA. She was later released 40km away at the Narela Industrial Area police station without her phone and bag, AISA members claimed. AISA members had claimed that the student leader was picked up by the Delhi Police in a private vehicle in the absence of women police officers, calling it a violation of procedure.
Separately, more than a dozen AAP workers were detained while protesting at India Gate. Delhi AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj accused officers of manhandling him, saying, “They are picking me up and throwing me around like I am a football. If this is how they treat politicians and journalists, just imagine how they must treat the general public.” AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal posted on X, “This is absolutely shocking. Modi ji has left even Hitler behind.”
In Mumbai, thousands joined the Garjana march from Metro Cinema to the BMC headquarters, with Opposition leaders alleging the ECI was undermining voters’ right to choose their Government through random addition and deletion of names from electoral rolls.
Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, NCP-SP’s Jayant Patil, Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar and Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena’s Shashikant Shinde and former minister Anil Deshmukh attended the march.
Uddhav described the moment as a “second battle for independence,” saying the fight was against the “tyranny and authoritarian conduct” of those in power rather than against any individual, caste or religion. He alleged 13 crore voters had been denied their right to vote through the Special Intensive Revision exercise, claiming it was designed to help the BJP in Maharashtra and West Bengal despite public anger against the Government. He questioned how many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had actually been identified through SIR and warned the situation could eventually lead to prosecutions similar to the Nuremberg Trials.
Raj Thackeray said he had raised concerns over alleged vote manipulation as early as 2017-18, pointing to an increase of 60 lakh voters in Maharashtra between the 2024 Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections held just six months apart. “What kind of Viagra was used by the people who are in positions to increase the voters?” he asked, demanding the SIR exercise be cancelled and elections conducted using ballot papers instead of EVMs.
Thorat said Rahul Gandhi had raised allegations of vote theft with supporting evidence, criticising changes to the Election Commission’s appointment process, including removal of a Supreme Court judge from the selection panel, and calling Kumar a “symbol of this corrupt administration.”
Political party flags were barred from the Mumbai march, with participants asked to carry only the national tricolour. Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke also extended support, referencing his earlier “Jail Bharo Andolan” and urging people to treat the moment as “now or never.”
Both cities’ protests form part of a wider agitation spreading across India over alleged irregularities in the Election Commission’s functioning and the conduct of the SIR exercise, with Delhi’s confrontations marked by detentions and barricades while Mumbai’s march proceeded largely unimpeded behind a rare show of unity among rival Maharashtra Opposition leaders.
