NEW DELHI: Nationwide protests demanding the resignation of India’s top election official and an overhaul of voter-roll changes entered a fourth day on Monday, with opposition parties and youth groups intensifying their campaign ahead of key state elections.
Demonstrators have accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission of India (ECI) of manipulating voter rolls through a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The ECI and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have rejected the allegations.
Thousands of opposition supporters and youth protesters gathered in New Delhi and Mumbai over the weekend, while police detained demonstrators in the capital.
Detained protesters crowdsurfed out of a police bus in Delhi during demonstrations demanding the election chief’s resignation. https://t.co/oi8AZzUP76
— World Vibe (@world_vibe_en) October 5, 2026
The protests began on Friday and have since spread to several parts of the country, with opposition parties demanding that Kumar step down and that the voter-roll revision be halted.
Protests intensify in Delhi, Mumbai
In Mumbai, opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led protests on Sunday calling for the revision to be scrapped and Kumar to resign.
Raj Thackeray said the changes were undermining voters’ rights and called on people to oppose the misuse of official power.
“Mumbai is out on the streets again for free and fair elections!” Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) chief Abhijeet Dipke said in a social media post.
“All Indians need to come together. It’s now or never!” he added.
Gyanu Must Go! https://t.co/ZJM0T1cLTQ
— Cockroach Janta Party – CJP (@Cockroachisback) October 5, 2026
In New Delhi, protesters gathered in the evening on Sunday and some were detained by police.
Some demonstrators breached police barricades and surrounded vehicles carrying detained protesters, climbing onto the vehicles and lying on the road to block their passage.
“Police dragged me by my hair,” activist and Jawaharlal Nehru University political science student Aahna Singh said. “The police are resorting to brutality.”
Voter-roll revision
The protesters say the SIR exercise has disenfranchised millions of eligible voters by removing their names from electoral rolls to benefit Modi’s BJP.
The ECI says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased and otherwise ineligible entries.
On Friday, the commission directed officials to register eligible voters who had been inadvertently omitted from the rolls.
The opposition INDIA bloc plans to march from Parliament House to the Election Commission’s office in New Delhi on Tuesday as part of a wider campaign under the slogan “Save Democracy”.
The planned march follows a meeting of 19 opposition parties on September 30. The parties agreed to organise rallies and demonstrations involving young people and civil society groups over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), however, has said it will not participate in Tuesday’s INDIA bloc march.
AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh said on Monday that the party was pursuing the issue separately.
“The Aam Aadmi Party is not part of it. We are fighting this battle in our own way,” Singh told reporters.
He said the party believed the issue concerned the wider public and that different groups, including the CJP and Left parties, were also protesting.
Police accused of sexually harassing female journalists
The demonstrations have also drawn scrutiny of Delhi Police after three female journalists and an activist alleged that police officers sexually harassed or assaulted them while they covered the protests.
Delhi Police acknowledged complaints from three female journalists on Sunday and transferred them to the Crime Branch for a “fair and impartial enquiry”.
Amnesty International is deeply concerned by allegations of sexual harassment by Delhi Police personnel against three women journalists covering protests in Delhi on 3 October.
The complaints have reportedly been transferred to the Crime Branch. Yet no FIR has been registered. That raises serious questions about accountability.
— Amnesty India (@AIIndia) October 5, 2026
The police said statements had been recorded and CCTV footage would be examined.
One journalist alleged that a senior police officer touched her inappropriately while she was filming the detention of protesters.
Another journalist alleged that a police officer rubbed against her while she was recording the detention of political activists Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.
On Monday, some journalists protesting over the allegations were themselves detained. One of the complainants was among those detained.
The journalist later alleged that police had beaten her during the detention and said journalists had spent the night outside a police station seeking action on her complaint.
Rosy and other protesting journalists are detained at Delhi Cantt PS. Team of lawyer comrades are in touch with them.
But if any lawyer can be at the PS immediately, pls DM.
— Neha (@neha_aisa) October 5, 2026
The Press Club of India condemned the misconduct and called for immediate action against the officers involved.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also criticised the police over the allegations.
He said cameras had been snatched and journalists dragged away, and alleged that similar incidents involving women and police officers had occurred previously.
The INDIA bloc has planned Tuesday’s march to the Election Commission, while the CJP has announced a major rally in New Delhi on October 10.
