Jantar Mantar 2.0 Updates: CJP Promises Fresh Protests In a Week If CEC Does not Go; Hundreds Detained and Defiant in Delhi
New Delhi: On Gandhi Jayanti, Friday (October 2), protesters gathered in thousands in Delhi's Jantar Mantar and Mumbai's Shivaji Park to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over widespread allegations of irregularities during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Delhi Police resorted to force against demonstrators and detained hundreds, including opposition Aam Aadmi Party leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjeev Jha, Anurag Dhanda, Atishi and Sanjay Singh. Left party leaders and protesters, including those from AISA, DYFI and SFI, members of the Congress’s youth wing NSUI and unaffiliated citizens, who organised protests at the historical central Delhi location, reached the protest sites in spite of the multiple barricades in their way.
Security forces were also heavily deployed around Shivaji Park in Mumbai, where the crowd started gathering by afternoon, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The Mumbai police had denied permission for the agitation.
The clamour for Kumar’s resignation increased after Indian Express reported on September 23 that in the last 10 months, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi – two of the three Election Commissioners (ECs) – formally objected for as many as 14 times to various aspects of the controversial SIR.
The SIR process has been embroiled in controversies, with 13 crore names being deleted from the draft rolls in 30 states and Union Territories ever since it began in June 2025. A large number of those whose names have been deleted include Muslims and people from marginalised communities.
In wake of the call for protests, the Delhi police have deployed around 4,000 police personnel, additional companies of central forces while 11 metro stations have been closed.
Later, on Friday night, the CJP promised to resume its agitation in Jantar Mantar on the 10th if CEC Kumar does not put in his papers by then. “It is up to the Govt & the Delhi Police whether they respect our right to peaceful protest or repeat the brutality we witnessed on July 20,” the outfit's founder Abhijeet Dipke said. He was referring to security forces' crackdown on the march to parliament demanding that then-Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign, which he ultimately did five days later, marking an unprecedented concession for the Modi government.
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