Delhi Police detained 700 protesters at Jantar Mantar in a demonstration calling for the resignation of Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The crowd, drawn from the AAP, Congress and Left, had marched after the Election Commission announced a Special Intensive Revision that struck off crores of inactive voters, a move critics say is a cover for vote‑theft.
At the protest, senior AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj and former Chief Minister Atishi were among those hauled away by officers, a sight captured on social media that went viral across the city. The police denied permission for the rally, citing public safety, and used a large deployment of officers to escort the demonstrators to police stations outside Delhi.
Across the Arabian Sea, Mumbai’s Cockroach Janta Party gathered thousands at Shivaji Park, defying a police ban on rallies. Founder Abhijeet Dipke, speaking on the Mahatma Gandhi birth‑anniversary, urged that “everyone here is Gandhi,” while the police dismantled a temporary stage and deployed 500 officers to control the crowd.
The unrest sparked counter‑protests by the BJP in Fort, with state minister Ashish Shelar branding the agitation a "grammar of anarchy." Similar protests erupted in Jaipur and Ahmedabad, where AAP workers clashed with police and demanded greater transparency in the SIR process.
Police officials said the 700 detainees will be released after they complete necessary paperwork. The Election Commission has denied any misconduct and called the SIR process a routine exercise, but the protests have put the commission’s actions under a national microscope.