Barricades, buses and 700 detained: Delhi's protest against CEC Gyanesh Kumar spills onto the streets

New Delhi, October 2 — What was planned as a protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar turned into one of the largest mass detentions of demonstrators the capital has seen this year, as Delhi Police detained more than 700 people, shut down metro stations and ordered a 12-hour internet blackout around the protest site. The demonstration, called by the All India Students' Association, Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan for Gandhi Jayanti, targeted the Election Commission over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. Delhi Police refused permission for the gathering, imposed prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and ringed Jantar Mantar with barricades and Central Armed Police Forces personnel. Those detained included AAP leaders Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha and Anurag Dhanda; activist Yogendra Yadav; CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya; CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby; and AISA president Neha Bora. Protesters were loaded into buses after confrontations with security personnel. DCP Sachin Sharma said some people sustained injuries, and officials were assessing the situation. The scale of the shutdown was striking. Internet providers Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea were ordered to suspend services from 9 am to 9 pm within a 1.5-kilometre radius of Jantar Mantar. Members of the Indian Youth Congress marched from Raisina Road wearing masks bearing the faces of the CEC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, carrying posters demanding accountability. SFI and DYFI activists joined from across the country. CPI(M)'s MA Baby, who was detained, said Kumar had "nakedly violated" the rules governing the Election Commission and demanded his removal: "Gyanesh Kumar should be arrested for the criminal activity of cutting people's votes." Actor Shabana Azmi told the gathering that the right to vote was guaranteed by the Constitution: "We will protest! This is our right." The protest followed reports, cited in The Indian Express, that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections over the SIR exercise — though the Commission has maintained that its decisions were unanimous. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who led a parallel protest in Mumbai, vowed another demonstration in Delhi on October 10 if Kumar refused to resign: "So many people will arrive that your barricades won't be enough." The INDIA bloc has announced its own escalation: MPs will protest on October 6, and a rally is planned in Delhi on November 1.