Supporters shout slogans while holding Indian flags and cutouts of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during a protest rally by the opposition coalition India Bloc (India National Alliance for Development and Inclusion) at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on November 1, 2026. “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR). (Photo by Arun SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Arun Sankar | AFP | Getty Images
Thousands of people protested in Delhi on Sunday demanding the resignation of India’s chief electoral officer over the revised voter rolls. This is the latest in more than a month of anti-government protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sunday’s protesters, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, say the controversial amendments will benefit Prime Minister Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Analysts say that although Modi’s government remains stable and the next general election is not scheduled until 2029, the protests and growing support for the opposition pose the worst crisis for Modi since taking power in 2014.
Authorities beefed up security and warned of traffic diversions before protesters began marching from central Delhi to designated rally sites, although opposition parties expected hundreds of thousands of people to take part.
‘There has to be accountability,’ protesters say.
Hundreds of security personnel, some carrying batons and shields and accompanied by anti-riot vehicles, surrounded the historic Ramlila Maidan grounds and many began moving towards it, waving national and party flags. Opposition leaders led the march in open-top jeeps.
Among the thousands of protesters waiting at Ramlila Maidan was Leena Mahato, a member of the Congress student wing, who said four members of her family were removed from the voters’ list on false claims that they had moved elsewhere.
She told Reuters that her family had long lived in Jagdalpur in central Chhattisgarh state, but “now all of a sudden we are marked as displaced from our home,” adding: “There should be accountability and we are here to demand it.”
Changes to the voter list removed more than 130 million names, more than Japan’s population. Opposition parties say the deletions unfairly influenced Muslim voters and other minorities who are less likely to support the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Election Commission denied favoring any political party and said voters who were mistakenly removed could be re-registered, but the Bharatiya Janata Party accused its rivals of falsely questioning a legitimate electoral process and trying to undermine democracy.
Dinesh Singh said he was participating in the protests for the future of his children.
“I don’t belong to any political party,” he said. “I’m here for a cause. I want our kids to remember that we fought for our future.”
Minister says ‘conspiracy’ for ‘anarchy’
However, Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda called the protests a “carefully orchestrated drama”.
“What is happening today at Ramlila Maidan is not an act of respect for democracy. It is a calculated conspiracy to plunge the country into anarchy in the name of democracy,” he told news agency ANI.
The demonstration is the latest in a series of near-daily protests that opposition parties, student organizations and the youth-led Gokiri Janta Party have been holding since late September to demand the resignation of Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The protests erupted after The Indian Express reported that two of Kumar’s deputies had raised several internal concerns over the revised voter rolls, registration process and digital system.
