New Delhi: Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke, Youtuber Dhruv Rathee and actor and activist Prakash Raj, among others on Thursday (October 8) participated in a massive protest against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exercise and voter deletion in Freedom Park, Bengaluru.As a part of the demonstrations, a “people’s tribunal” was held, where people from across Karnataka raised concerns over alleged wrongful deletions from voter lists. The tribunal was followed by a “chappal protest”.“This is my first protest. When I landed yesterday, I saw that social media posts were going viral saying Dhruv Rathee is coming to change the regime. Narendra Modi must be thinking I have a problem with him, but the entire nation has a problem with him,” Rathee said.Rathee questioned how 70 lakh people in West Bengal were removed just before elections adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar can only answer the question.“I would want to tell this to BJP voters too that voting is a right. The BJP supporters are not convinced of ‘vote chori’ claims.” Rathee said.“What happened in Bihar? Over 40 lakh names were deleted but Gyanesh Kumar didn’t say a word until the Supreme Court asked these names to be made public,” he said. He alleged that 14 lakh names were added suddenly in Uttar Pradesh. “Who are these people? While in Goa, even though EROs wanted to add, ECI didn’t allow,” he added.Rathee released a report on the SIR, which focuses on irregularities across 100 polling stations in Karnataka.Accusing Prime Minister Modi for the “death of democracy,” Dipke said that SIR reflects “RSS [Rahtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] and Godse’s ideology”.“Narendra Modi did ‘vote chori’ and won. People who are alive are declared dead. This is death of democracy by Narendra Modi. Through SIR, Modi wants ownership of people. This is RSS ideology, Godse’s ideology,” Dipke said.“Nehru is the backbone of India, and gave voting rights to people who didn’t know about it. Meanwhile this “Vishwaguru” is doing vote chori. ‘One nation, one election’ is only a slogan. However, the intention is ‘one nation, one party’. This is similar to what Hilter intended. The difference between BJP and Congress in 2024 is just 2%, that’s why this ‘vote chori’. Because BJP was shocked with the results after claiming “400 paar,” he added.Dipke reiterated the protests will continue until CEC Gyanesh Kumar resigns from his post.“Across India, 13 crore names have been deleted from the draft stage, and the BJP via ECI has increased the winning gap. Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan – all those who were against Modi, lost this time. They call us [youth] cockroaches because they want us to live like a cockroach; but we need to be resilient like a cockroach. The street belongs to the youth and we will reclaim the nation, the democracy. We will not let Modi impose his dictatorship,” he said.“We will hit the streets, reclaim democracy and continue agitation till the CEC resigns,” he added.The CJP founder raised a slogan, “One, two, three, four Narendra Modi vote chor (thief),” along with the protesters.CJP convenor Saurav Das posted an image on X with the caption, “Bengaluru shows up! Gyanu, it’s done bro.”Bengaluru shows up!Gyanu, it’s done bro.@Cockroachisback https://t.co/3pyeoQKfNO— Saurav Das (@SauravDassss) October 8, 2026‘Whose instructions was Gyanesh Kumar following? Amit Shah? Modi?’“Every five years, these politicians come to our feet. They call us brothers and sisters, seek our blessings, touch our feet and ask us to vote for them. But now what are they doing? We have to stand outside their offices and beg, ‘Sir, please give us our votes back.’ Are we going to allow this? Who are they to take away our votes?” Prakash Raj said as the crowd continued raising slogans of “Vote chor, gaddi chor (vote thief, resign)”.The actor spoke about the scenario in Karnataka, in particular and the country, in general saying the SIR was disproportionately leaving vulnerable communities without franchise.“Don’t think that just because your vote is there today, you are safe. They have removed the votes of Adivasis, the poor, Muslims and minorities. They cannot kill democracy directly, so they are taking away people’s votes. Thirteen crore votes is not just a number. These are human beings. These are citizens of this country,” Prakash Raj said.He added: “Our activists went across Karnataka and met people who actually lost their votes, people who suffered because of SIR. These are stories of tears. These are people like us.”Further, he underlined that this “fight” now is a “fight for our rights”.“Political parties are fighting their battles. But we are not a political party. We are citizens. We are the citizens of this country. This fight is for our rights,” Prakash Raj said.Hitting out at Modi and Shah, Prakash Raj pointed out that Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation is simply not going to solve any problem.“Even if Gyanesh Kumar goes, another Gyanesh Kumar will come. First, SIR must be cancelled. Then this Gyanesh Kumar must be investigated. A case must be filed against him. Whose instructions was he following? Amit Shah? Modi?” he questioned.“The Election Commission has not come to clean up the voter list. They have come to remove people. They have come to remove us. Do you understand how dangerous this is?” Prakash Raj asked the crowd.For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here.