Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi on Sunday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a controversial revision of India’s voter lists.

The rally was organised by the opposition INDIA bloc and led by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party. It drew many of the alliance’s most prominent leaders in a show of strength against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Protesters waved flags and chanted “Save the vote, save the country” and “Vote thief, give up power.”

Gandhi and several senior opposition leaders arrived at the venue in an open jeep, moving through crowds of cheering supporters. Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge attended alongside leaders of regional parties, including Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Mehbooba Mufti, Supriya Sule and Tejashwi Yadav.

What the voter-list revision is

At the centre of the fight is an exercise called the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR. It has resulted in more than 130 million names being removed from India’s draft electoral rolls.

The Election Commission says the exercise is meant to remove duplicate registrations and the names of people who have died, moved away or are otherwise ineligible to vote. It says eligible voters who were wrongly excluded can seek to have their names restored.

Opposition parties allege the process is stripping legitimate voters from the rolls and could benefit the governing BJP in future elections. The BJP and the Election Commission deny those allegations.

The dispute sharpened in September, when a newspaper reported that Kumar had made key decisions about the revision despite repeated objections from the two other election commissioners. The poll panel said differences of opinion were normal in any institution and did not affect its functioning.

A month of street pressure

Sunday’s rally was the latest in a series of protests over the revision, including demonstrations by student groups and the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). Last month, Gandhi led tens of thousands on a march from Connaught Place in central Delhi to the Supreme Court, demanding Kumar’s resignation.

The CJP backed Sunday’s rally but chose not to take part. Its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, said the group wanted to keep its independence from established political parties.

Police conditions and tense scenes on the streets

The rally ran under strict conditions set by Delhi Police. Organisers were required to end the gathering by 5pm, install CCTV cameras at the venue and make sure protesters did not march beyond the designated grounds, according to local media reports.

Those limits followed tensions over how demonstrations have been policed in the capital. On 10 October, several CJP leaders were detained during protests against Kumar. Reporters on the scene saw police dragging demonstrators away and beating some with batons.

At Ramlila Maidan, the mood was largely peaceful. People of different ages and professions turned out to voice concerns about the integrity of India’s elections. Some sang and danced to patriotic Bollywood songs, while others waited beneath a large canopy in the colours of the Indian flag.

“We will not allow democracy to be destroyed in India. We will not allow the constitution to be destroyed.” - Rahul Gandhi

The government fires back

Speaking to reporters in Delhi on Sunday, senior BJP leader and federal minister JP Nadda accused the opposition of trying to create unrest and destabilise the government under the guise of defending democracy. He called the rally a “calculated conspiracy to plunge the nation into anarchy - in the name of democracy.”

Gandhi said the crowd had sent a message to Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Kumar. “This is not the voice of a single political party or of politicians. It is the voice of India’s youth, women, farmers and workers,” he said.

Other opposition leaders echoed the criticism. Kharge said the alliance would continue its campaign until Kumar resigned, while Banerjee pledged to keep fighting what she described as threats to democracy.

Voters at the centre of it

Isha, a development sector professional from Delhi, said: “We don’t even know if this is a people’s mandate or a stolen mandate.”

Deepro Guha, a lawyer from Delhi, said he was concerned about the way the revision had been carried out. “It’s important because voting is the basis of democracy. If people’s names are removed without any explanation, there is a problem,” he said.