Tens of thousands of people gathered in New Delhi on Sunday for a major opposition rally demanding the resignation of India's chief election commissioner, as security forces surrounded the venue with batons and shields.
The rally took place at Ramlila Maidan, a large ground in central Delhi known for hosting cultural events and political protests. It was organised by the opposition INDIA bloc and led by Rahul Gandhi's Congress party. Visuals showed Gandhi travelling in an open-top jeep alongside other opposition leaders heading towards the venue.
Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed near the grounds ahead of the event. The youth-led pressure group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) also pledged support for the rally.
The demonstration is the latest show of opposition anger over a voter-list revision exercise that has removed 130 million names from draft electoral rolls across India.
The Election Commission of India says the exercise — known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — is aimed at updating the voters' list by removing the names of people who have died or moved away from their registered addresses.
Opposition parties allege the process could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by removing eligible voters from the rolls. They accuse the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the BJP of "vote chori (theft)". Both the BJP and the Election Commission have denied the allegations.
The controversy intensified in September when an investigation by The Indian Express reported that CEC Gyanesh Kumar made key decisions related to the exercise without the agreement of the two other election commissioners, who had raised objections on more than a dozen occasions. The Election Commission said differences of opinion were normal in any institution and did not affect its functioning.
Protests have continued for weeks in Delhi and other Indian cities, organised by opposition parties, the CJP, and student groups.
On Saturday, leaders of the INDIA bloc staged a symbolic impeachment of Kumar at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in Delhi. The mock parliamentary session was presided over by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who saw leaders accuse the election chief of "conspiring to steal elections" and deliberately removing 130 million voters from electoral rolls.
Kharge, who is also the leader of the opposition in parliament's upper house, moved a symbolic motion seeking Kumar's removal, accusing him of undermining the electoral process and committing an act of "treason against the nation and the Constitution of India". Several people whose names had been removed from electoral rolls also attended the event.
The proceedings carried no legal standing. Under Indian law, the chief election commissioner can only be removed through a formal parliamentary process.
The INDIA bloc — short for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance — is a group of opposition parties formed in 2023 to contest the governing BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Prime Minister Modi has not directly commented on the mock impeachment. Speaking at a public rally on Friday, however, he said that "some people" wanted to create chaos across the country so that he could be defamed. At a separate rally on Saturday, he accused opposition parties of "abandoning their duty" and "tearing apart the dignity and boundaries of the constitution".
Last month, Gandhi led tens of thousands of protesters in a march from Connaught Place in central Delhi to the Supreme Court, also seeking the CEC's resignation. A party leader said the march was "just the trailer" and that "Sunday's rally will be several times bigger than that".
Ahead of Sunday's rally, Gandhi said their protest was against "the demolition of Indian democracy", adding that "all the opposition parties and everybody who wants to come, political or non-political, is welcome".
