Representative image. Sidheeq, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Why it matters
The voter-roll revision decides who can vote in the next elections, so the dispute touches every voter whose name was checked or removed. The protests also mean traffic diversions and heavy security in central Delhi, with a bigger rally planned for 1 November.
Delhi Police stopped an anti-SIR protest march on Ashoka Road in central Delhi on Friday, 23 October 2026, and detained several marchers who were heading for the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters near Patel Chowk. The march, called by a week-old alliance named People Against SIR, wants the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls scrapped and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar removed. The SIR is the commission’s re-checking of voter lists, which critics say has wrongly deleted voters.
How the anti-SIR protest march unfolded in Delhi
The marchers gathered near Gole Dak Khana, where Kalibari Marg meets Bhai Vir Singh Marg, close to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Connaught Place, the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF), a riot-control wing of the Central Reserve Police Force, were deployed in large numbers around the gurdwara before the start.
When police stopped the column on Ashoka Road, the protesters sat down on the road and held what the organisers had announced as a “People’s Parliament”. The Hindu reported that police then began detaining people after warning them to leave the protest sites. Police had not given a count of detentions by about 4 pm IST.
Two student and youth groups, the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), backed the march, and activists came from Delhi, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat joined and told PTI: “Our struggle will continue until CEC Gyanesh Kumar resigns.” Activist Yogendra Yadav posted on X that the CEC must resign, the SIR should be rolled back and the 2023 law on appointing election commissioners should be repealed.
Hindustan Times reported that the organisers had invited actor Prakash Raj, student leaders Neha Bora and Aishe Ghosh, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, activist Tushar Gandhi and Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). There was no confirmation by the afternoon of which of them took part.
Commuters felt it too. The Delhi Traffic Police had announced diversions from 1 pm to 5 pm around Bangla Sahib, Connaught Place, Parliament Street and Jantar Mantar, and asked people to avoid roads towards Astha Kunj Park and Nehru Place as well.
What People Against SIR wants from the Election Commission
People Against SIR was formed on 14 October at Surjeet Bhavan in New Delhi by groups representing farmers, workers, women, students, Adivasis, Dalits and minorities, according to Hindustan Times. It calls the revision illegal. Its main demands are that voter lists go back to their pre-2024 version and are then updated through social audits, as set out in the Election Commission’s manual and guidelines of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the government’s auditor.
In a statement on 18 October, the platform said its “People’s March to Reclaim Democracy” would not seek police permission anywhere. It has planned a “No SIR” campaign under the slogan “Har Gali Jantar Mantar, Har Gaon Jantar Mantar, Mera Ghar Jantar Mantar”, roughly “a protest site in every street, every village and every home”.
The Delhi march was one part of a wider call. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the farm union front that led the 2020-21 protests against three central farm laws, asked its member groups to protest at district and tehsil offices and state capitals on the same day. They planned to hand memorandums for President Droupadi Murmu to district magistrates. The SKM alleges that 13.41 crore citizens were deleted from electoral rolls during the revision. The Election Commission has not accepted that figure, and NewsPlainly could not verify it.
How the BJP and the poll body have responded to the protests
The Election Commission has rejected the allegations behind the protests. Answering an investigative report by The Indian Express, it said that major decisions, including the SIR, were taken unanimously by the full commission.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the opposition’s plans. At a press conference on 23 October, BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi accused the Congress and its allies of choosing 1 November for their next Delhi protest to create “anarchy”, and drew a parallel with the anti-Sikh violence that followed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination on 31 October 1984, The Hindu reported. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on 22 October that the BJP would run a nationwide campaign called “Save democracy, remove anarchy”, and said democracy means respecting the people’s mandate rather than blaming institutions for defeat.
Indresh Kumar, a national executive member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), questioned who was funding the CJP’s campaigns and said turnout at the protests was falling, according to the news agency ANI.
The opposition has kept up its own pressure. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has demanded the repeal of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act of 2023, which protects commissioners from civil and criminal cases for acts done in their official duties, and has sought the CEC’s removal. “Are you above the Constitution?” he asked reporters on 21 October, PTI reported.
Why Gyanesh Kumar is at the centre of the row
The current anger grew out of The Indian Express report, which said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months about decisions and procedures linked to the SIR. The commission disputes that account, as noted above.
A Right to Information (RTI) reply, reported by Hindustan Times, adds a second strand. It shows the Cabinet Secretariat forwarded letters from the two commissioners, about alleged misconduct by senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, to the CEC’s own office as well as to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). A note dated 3 August proposed seeking the CEC’s opinion on the letters; a note of 4 August said they were written in the commissioners’ individual capacity. The only reply the two received, on 5 August, was an acknowledgement.
States have joined in. The Punjab Assembly on 23 October tabled a resolution, moved by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, seeking an independent inquiry into the CEC and recent voter-roll decisions ahead of the state’s 2027 election. In Chennai, the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and its allies walked out of an all-party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu’s Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik, and minister CTR Nirmal Kumar repeated the demand for the CEC’s resignation.
Next for the anti-SIR protest: a 1 November rally
The INDIA bloc, the alliance of opposition parties led by the Congress, plans a rally at Ramlila Ground in Delhi on 1 November, and its leaders have discussed another round of protests in early November, Hindustan Times reported. The Union Home Ministry has extended, for the second time, the deployment of 273 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in Delhi until 31 October, at the Delhi Police’s request, citing the chance of “flash protests”, PTI reported quoting official sources.
Removing a CEC needs the same process as removing a Supreme Court judge, a motion passed by both Houses of Parliament. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on 22 October that any fresh impeachment motion against Gyanesh Kumar would be examined under the laid-down procedure if the opposition moves one.
Separately, CJP co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who were released on bonds earlier this week, reached the Mandir Marg police station on 23 October, a day after missing a crime branch summons in two cases against them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the SIR?
The Special Intensive Revision is the Election Commission's re-checking of electoral rolls. Protesters allege it wrongly deleted voters; the commission says its decisions were unanimous.
What do the anti-SIR protesters want?
They want the revision scrapped, voter lists reset to their pre-2024 version and updated through social audits, and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar removed.
When is the next big protest in Delhi?
The INDIA bloc has a rally planned at Ramlila Ground on 1 November 2026.
Which roads were affected in Delhi on 23 October?
Delhi Traffic Police announced diversions from 1 pm to 5 pm around Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, Connaught Place, Parliament Street and Jantar Mantar.