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Election chief protests swell across Mumbai and Delhi

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Election chief protests swell across Mumbai and Delhi
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. File photograph released by the Government of India under GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons.

Election chief protests stretched into a third day on Sunday, 4 October 2026, as thousands marched in Mumbai and more people gathered in New Delhi to demand that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign. The demonstrations began on Friday over a voter-roll revision that protesters say has removed millions of eligible voters.

Opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led the Mumbai march. People waved Indian flags and called for Kumar to step down. Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that protesters in the capital started gathering in the early evening and that some were detained as they arrived. Police in Delhi have, over the previous two days, detained dozens and taken them away by bus to stop assemblies in the city centre. Police also registered cases against some people for violating orders that ban mass gatherings in central Delhi.

Posters outside the Election Commission of India office in New Delhi
The Election Commission of India office in New Delhi. Photograph by Legaleagle86, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What the election chief protests are demanding

Protesters say the revision will benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Both the Election Commission and the BJP have denied that. The Commission says the exercise is meant to remove duplicate, deceased or ineligible entries and to protect the integrity of the rolls. On Friday it told officials to register eligible voters who had been left off by mistake.

Raj Thackeray told the Mumbai crowd that voters, not the Election Commission, should decide who is in power and who sits in opposition. Kumar has not publicly answered the resignation demands or commented on the protests.

Further action is already on the calendar. An opposition alliance plans a march to the Election Commission office on Tuesday under the banner of saving democracy. The Cockroach Janta Party has announced a major rally in New Delhi on 10 October. Its chief, Abhijeet Dipke, wrote on Sunday that Mumbai was on the streets again for free and fair elections.

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