New Delhi: Students, farmers, civil society groups, professionals and other concerned citizens demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists marched towards the Election Commission on Friday (October 23).Their protest, reportedly backed by over 90 organisations, was in order to “save democracy”, participating protesters said all day. The march had been called by the Delhi Coordination Committee of People Against SIR, and started near Gol Dak Khana.Among those in the New Delhi protest are actor Prakash Raj, economist, Parakala Prabhakar, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj, literary critic Ganesh Devy, activist Tushar Gandhi, Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, AISA national president Neha Bora, SFI leader Aishe Ghosh and AISF leader Viraaj Devang.Within hours of the protesters arriving close to the spot, they were detained by Delhi Police, which sought to prevent them from marching to Nirvachan Sadan. However, a section of blocked protesters held a ‘Peoples’ Parliament’ at the spot where Delhi Police had stopped them.Gyanesh Kumar, the CEC, against whom protests have been ongoing since the revelation of dissent within the commission, has not issued a statement so far on the demands for resignation. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) was among the outfits backing the call for today’s march.Gyanu has to go.— Saurav Das (@SauravDassss) October 21, 2026Section 163, which prevents more than four people from gathering in case of a risk perception about public order, has been imposed around the Bangla Sahib gurudwara area, where hundreds of protesters gathered in the morning and afternoon.Police could be seen using mics and loudspeakers to ask people to disperse. People carried the national flag with them and the crowd, though large, was seen to be peaceful.यह लड़ाई चुनाव आयोग को सत्ता का ‘खिलाड़ी’ नहीं, लोकतंत्र का निष्पक्ष ‘अंपायर’ बनाए रखने की है।MARCH TOWARDS THE ELECTION COMMISSION#GyaneshKumarMustGo https://t.co/8m7mYFNasf— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) October 23, 2026Delhi Traffic Police had already announced traffic diversions a day earlier in anticipation of the gathering. “In connection with the anticipated movement of a large number of people from Bangla Sahib Gurudwara towards Jantar Mantar today, traffic diversions will be in place from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM,” it said in an advisory.Despite the police presence and the repeated refual of the Union government to engage with protesters on the issue, youngsters turned out in large numbers to demand the resignation.Prominent figures such as Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, who has been demanding transparency in the electoral process and scrapping of SIR, shared a video of the protests beyond the captial.A citizen’s protest march against SIR, Gyanesh Kumar & EVMs in Palampur HP today on save democracy day https://t.co/H0IF3D99kF— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) October 23, 2026Photos and videos on social media also showed protesters hitting the streets with the national flag in other cities and towns across India. The Wire reported on the protests in Bengaluru as well.CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat at the protest on October 23 demanding resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and cancellation of the SIR, in New Delhi. Photo: PTI/Ravi ChoudharyThe protest, over the past month, has taken on a much larger shape than the resignation, with youth insisting that the rules for appointing the CEC and Election Commissioner were unfairly balanced in favour of the ruling party.Neha Bora told mediapersons at the Bangla Sahib site that what the CEC was doing was “a crime”, but the government was painting as criminalit those who were protesting against this. AISA emphasised that peaceful protest is “not a crime“.Watch The Wire’s coverage of today’s protest from Gurudwara Bangla Sahib:The protesters also demand that the government restore their rights to access Jantar Mantar in the heart of the capital as a protest site. The Union Home Ministry, which controls Delhi Police, has extended the deployment of 273 Central Armed Police Forces companies in the national capital untill October 31.With their roads to the Election Commission and Jantar Mantar blocked since about a fortnight, people have taken recourse to “flash protests” that are smaller but defy the blanket bans on gatherings over four people and the refusal to let them approach the CEC or his offices in Nirvachan Sadan directly.Friday’s protest, which had sizeable representation from Left outfits, was one instance of flash protests being mobilised to raise citizens’ demands.Hundreds of people marched from Bhai Vir Singh Marg to the ECI headquarters in New Delhi at the joint call of farmers’, workers’, women’s, youth and student organisations and civil society groups, demanding the removal and prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, halt to the SIR process, revocation of legal immunity for the Election Commission, and other demands.— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) October 23, 2026Over the past few weeks, amidst brutal repression of both mainstream political parties and the Cockroach Janta Party and its supporters, the call for Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation has morphed into a wider protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.From denial of permission followed by denotification of a protest site, to closure of metro stations, detentions of youth and student leaders and halting of railway services to choke points and enormous companies of security, for weeks now, the Delhi Police has left no stone unturned in ensuring the planned protests do not happen.