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The people’s newsroom

PoliticsProtests

Police detain marchers as Left parties and students head for Election Commission over SIR

Marching under the banner 'People Against SIR', protesters set out from Gurdwara Bangla Sahib towards the poll body's headquarters, demanding that CEC Gyanesh Kumar resign.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi (file photo)
Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi (file photo)Photo: Slyronit / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. Left parties and student leaders marched under the banner 'People Against SIR' towards the Election Commission.
  2. Delhi Police imposed Section 163 BNSS restrictions from 1 pm to 5 pm around Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and Connaught Place.
  3. Several marchers were detained; the protest had no official permission.

Delhi Police detained several protesters on Friday afternoon as Left parties and student leaders tried to march to the Election Commission of India’s headquarters, demanding that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls be scrapped and that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar step down.

The marchers, gathering under the banner “People Against SIR”, assembled near Gate 1 of Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and at Connaught Place in central Delhi. The police had not given permission for the protest. Restrictions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were in force at both spots from 1 pm to 5 pm, and detention buses were parked nearby as personnel took up positions around the gurdwara and the Commission’s offices.

“Our protest will intensify; nobody can save Gyanesh Kumar,” said P Sandosh, a leader of the Communist Party of India.

What the marchers want

Besides the CEC’s resignation, the protesters want the SIR called off. They say the revision has struck eligible voters off the rolls and will shut many of them out of coming elections. The Election Commission had not responded to Friday’s march by mid-afternoon.

Delhi Traffic Police had issued an advisory before the march, announcing diversions between 1 pm and 5 pm, asking commuters to avoid the affected roads and urging motorists to “remain patient”. It gave the helpline numbers 1095 and 011-25844444.

A wider campaign

The march is the latest in a string of protests in the capital against the SIR and the CEC, led at different times by the INDIA bloc parties and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), several of whose leaders are still facing police cases.

Earlier on Friday, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said in Guwahati that the Election Commission had been emptied of its constitutional authority and that Kumar “has to go”. He said the opposition’s “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” rallies were continuing across the country. The INDIA bloc is also reported to be planning a mock Parliament on 28 October, though its details have not been settled.

What comes next

The Congress has police permission to hold a rally at Ramlila Maidan on 1 November, after Delhi Police issued it a no-objection certificate on 17 October. Opposition parties are expected to use the rally to press their demands on the SIR and the CEC.