Thousands of protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar in the capital and at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on Oct. 2, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over widespread allegations of irregularities in the Election Commission’s SIR exercise.
The protests were organised by several civil society organisations alarmed by the scale of deletions from electoral rolls since the SIR process began in June 2025. Across 30 states and Union Territories, 13 crore names have been removed from the draft voter rolls. A large number of those deleted include Muslims and people from marginalised communities, raising serious concerns about the disenfranchisement of minority voters ahead of future elections.
Calls for Kumar’s resignation intensified after a report by the Indian Express on Sep. 23 revealed that two of the three Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, formally objected 14 times in the last 10 months to various aspects of the controversial SIR process. The objections from within the Election Commission itself have deepened public distrust in the exercise.
The Delhi Police deployed around 4,000 personnel and additional central forces ahead of the demonstration. Authorities shut down 12 metro stations near the protest site and cut off mobile internet services near Connaught Place. The Internet Freedom Foundation flagged the absence of a formal suspension order for the internet shutdown.