Heavy police deployment in Delhi as opposition and citizens demand CEC’s resignation over SIR controversy
SEPTEMBER 25: Jantar Mantar turned into a heavily fortified protest zone on Friday as demonstrations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls intensified across the country.
Multiple layers of barricades were erected around Jantar Mantar, with buses reportedly deployed to block entrances and a heavy police presence maintained around the protest site. The security measures came as opposition-linked groups and political workers gathered in Delhi demanding Kumar’s resignation over allegations concerning the conduct and transparency of the SIR exercise.
The Indian Youth Congress also marched towards the Election Commission in New Delhi, demanding Kumar’s resignation amid the continuing controversy over the functioning of the poll panel and the revision of electoral rolls.
The protests come amid growing questions over decisions taken during the SIR process. An investigation by The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over a 10-month period concerning decisions related to voter additions and deletions, changes to Form 6 and the centralisation of electoral-roll data.
The Election Commission has disputed any suggestion that the reported internal observations demonstrate a breakdown in decision-making. It has said that written observations, technical suggestions and internal checks are part of the normal functioning of a multi-member constitutional body, and maintained that final decisions were taken unanimously.
The political confrontation escalated further after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) issued Kumar a 48-hour ultimatum on Thursday, demanding his resignation and calling for an independent investigation into decisions taken during the SIR exercise. The group has also demanded that SIR-related exclusions be frozen, that the January 2025 electoral rolls be secured and that relevant records be made available for independent scrutiny.
The CJP has now announced that it will begin a nationwide protest from Mumbai on October 2 if Kumar does not resign by the deadline.
The immediate flashpoint, however, is Delhi. With Jantar Mantar barricaded and protesters gathering despite the extraordinary police deployment, the dispute over electoral-roll revisions has moved from institutional and legal arguments into a visible confrontation on the streets of the capital.
At the heart of the controversy is a basic democratic question: how names are added to or removed from electoral rolls, who authorises those decisions and whether voters have an effective and transparent mechanism to challenge an exclusion.
For the protesters, the issue is one of electoral accountability. For the Election Commission, the process remains governed by law and its established decision-making procedures.
With protests spreading and the 48-hour deadline approaching, the confrontation over SIR and the Election Commission is rapidly becoming one of the most consequential political controversies surrounding India’s electoral system.
Jantar Mantar is barricaded today. The larger battle is over who gets to remain on the voters’ list, and who gets to decide.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
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