Gyanesh Kumar resignation protests: AAP, AISA marchers detained in Delhi

Protests demanding the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar continued in New Delhi on Sunday, October 4, as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers and All India Students’ Association (AISA) activists tried to reach Jantar Mantar. Police stopped marchers at barricades and detained protesters, including AAP’s Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj and AISA national president Neha Bora. The demonstrators say the Election Commission’s revision of voter lists puts eligible voters at risk of being excluded; the commission rejects allegations of wrongdoing.

What happened in Delhi on Sunday?

AISA activists set out from the Ashoka Road area toward Jantar Mantar, a central Delhi site commonly used for demonstrations. Police had blocked approaches to the site, and protesters encountered officers at barricades. Bora was detained during the march, according to AISA, which also raised concerns about how she was taken away.

In a separate gathering near India Gate, AAP workers and members of its student wing, ASAP, protested against Kumar. Police detained more than a dozen people there, including Bharadwaj and AAP lawmaker Sanjeev Jha. Some protesters tried to get past barricades or obstruct vehicles carrying detainees. Bharadwaj alleged that officers manhandled him during his detention.

The gatherings marked a third consecutive day of attempts to protest near Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police had refused permission for an October 2 demonstration and restricted access to the area. Hundreds were detained that Friday, including opposition leaders and student activists, before being released later in the day, police said. Further detentions followed on Saturday when protesters again tried to assemble. Those earlier figures should not be treated as a count of Sunday’s detentions.

Why are protesters calling for Kumar to quit?

The immediate dispute concerns the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of electoral rolls. The Election Commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries while keeping eligible voters registered. Opposition parties and activists argue that the procedures, including documentation requirements, could instead leave legitimate voters off the lists. They have also accused Kumar of political bias. The commission and the governing Bharatiya Janata Party deny allegations that the revisions are being used to benefit the party.

Questions about decision-making within the three-member Election Commission have added to the protests. Accounts of objections raised by the other two commissioners prompted opposition demands for Kumar’s removal. The Election Commission has disputed the suggestion that those exchanges amounted to final dissent: it says differing views are part of its internal deliberations and that its decisions on the revision were unanimous. The disagreement over what the internal records show remains distinct from the protesters’ allegations about the voter lists themselves.

Sunday’s marches followed an October 2 protest in Mumbai organized by the Cockroach Janta Party, a youth-led movement founded by Abhijeet Dipke. The Mumbai gathering also demanded Kumar’s resignation. Dipke has said the movement plans to protest at Jantar Mantar on October 10 if Kumar remains in office. That proposed gathering is separate from the AAP and AISA marches stopped in Delhi on Sunday.

The latest detentions have kept attention on two connected questions: whether eligible voters can remain on the rolls through the revision process, and whether demonstrators can reach the capital’s designated protest site. Protesters are pressing for Kumar to step down, while the Election Commission maintains that the voter-list exercise and its decisions are being conducted properly.