New Delhi:
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will have to “go”, and there will be no backing down on that demand, declared the Congress on Saturday, as it gave a clarion call to other parties in the Opposition INDIA bloc and “all concerned citizens” to join its protest march on Monday.
“We appeal to every Indian concerned about the survival of Indian democracy to join us in a massive protest march in Delhi on Monday – against the nationwide Vote Chori orchestrated by the Modi-Shah regime. Yesterday, we held a comprehensive meeting with various leaders to prepare for this march. INDIA MPs, leaders, workers and all concerned citizens will be holding a huge protest march against Gyanesh & Co, and a delegation of our senior leaders will submit a memorandum to the Hon’ble CJI for his intervention in this crisis,” said Congress leader KC Venugopal.
“Gyanesh must go. There will be no backing down,” he added.
We appeal to every Indian concerned about the survival of Indian democracy to join us in a massive protest march in Delhi on Monday – against the nationwide Vote Chori orchestrated by the Modi-Shah regime. Yesterday, we held a comprehensive meeting with various leaders to prepare for this march. INDIA MPs, leaders, workers and all concerned citizens will be holding a huge protest march against Gyanesh & Co, and a delegation of our senior leaders will submit a memorandum to the Hon’ble CJI for his intervention in this crisis. Gyanesh must go. There will be no backing down.
— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) October 10, 2026
It isn’t clear who will join the protest march and who won’t. But Mamata Banerjee’s attendance is confirmed.
On Saturday, Banerjee was one of the several top Opposition leaders who wanted to join the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest at Jantar Mantar to demand from the Central government the removal of Kumar and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision exercise, which has eliminated millions of voters across the country from electoral rolls. She was detained by the Delhi Police, like hundreds of CJP leaders and supporters, including the pressure group’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke.
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Her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, a polarising figure within the Trinamool Congress’ breakaway factions, has returned to Kolkata. But he will travel to Delhi on Monday.
Before the Congress announcement, the Delhi Police on Saturday morning thwarted the CJP plan to dig in the national capital to press for their demand of Kumar’s removal. The strategy had worked for the pressure group in July, when it forced the then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign over question paper leaks.
The authorities didn’t take any chances this time as they took preemptive action, including detention of CJP supporters, cutting down internet and transportation links in affected areas across the national capital.
The scuttling of the protest didn’t go down well with Banerjee.
She described her detention as kidnapping.
“It’s very unfortunate. We are not criminals; they picked us like criminals,” she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
“We were moving around for two hours, didn’t know where we were going. Just like kidnapping. Now we are on the border of Haryana-Delhi,” she added.
She told PTI that she had cancelled her flight to Kolkata after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi requested her to stay in Delhi, putting on display the renewed bonhomie between the two leaders. Just a few days earlier, she endorsed Gandhi for the coveted post of the Prime Minister of India.
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“This has gone beyond an Emergency; it has become a Super Emergency. Maintaining peace and remaining calm is the most important thing, but what they are doing today is not right, neither for the country nor for its people,” she told the news agency.
Other INDIA bloc leaders were also detained, including three other former chief ministers — Arvind Kejriwal, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar.
CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby, veteran Left leader Brinda Karat, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav and lawyer Prashant Bhushan were also detained and later released.
Vijayan later took to X to post, “Imagine being so scared of the opposition that you make the Delhi Police detain elected reps and drive them around in circles for an hour just to keep them quiet.”
“Modi’s panic is really showing here, and honestly, it’s just embarrassing at this point. Such high-handed tactics are a blatant attack on our democratic rights, but we will not be intimidated,” he added.
Also read: Top Court To Hold Special Hearing Tomorrow On Metro Closure, Protest Detentions
The INDIA bloc, which mostly remains fragmented and is fraught with internal contradictions, has come together on the SIR issue after a newspaper report claimed last month that the other two election commissioners on the panel of three had not been informed about several decisions regarding the exercise. The report also pointed out that they objected on record to several decisions taken by the poll body.
Reacting to the row, the poll body said last month that all decisions taken by it in the last one year were unanimous and that “differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution.”
On Friday, a delegation of the INDIA bloc met with President Droupadi Murmu and flagged the alleged theft of votes and demanded Kumar’s resignation.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, SP’s Rajeev Rai, RJD’s Manoj Jha, VCK chief Thol. Thirumavalavan, MA Baby and Rahul Gandhi comprised the delegation.
