India opposition rallies against 130M voter deletions, demands election chief's resignation

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on November 1, 2026, to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a controversial revision of electoral rolls that has removed over 130 million names. The rally, organised by the INDIA alliance and led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, was one of the largest protests in a campaign that intensified in late September. Opposition leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Mehbooba Mufti, Supriya Sule and Tejashwi Yadav attended the event.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which began in 2025, removed approximately 63 million people classified as having relocated, 30.1 million classified as unable to be located or verified, 28 million classified as deceased, and 10.2 million classified as duplicate registrations. The Election Commission of India maintains the revisions are routine electoral maintenance to remove ineligible voters. Opposition parties allege the deletions disproportionately affect Muslim and minority voters who are unlikely to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and claim the process constitutes electoral manipulation.

Security was substantially heightened for the event. Delhi Police deployed over 4,000 personnel, Central Armed Police Forces companies, more than 200 CCTV cameras, drones and body-worn cameras. The ground was divided into 14 security zones, each supervised by an officer at assistant commissioner rank. Traffic restrictions were imposed on surrounding roads including Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Minto Road and Desh Bandhu Gupta Road. A march, called "Chalo Dilli", began at noon from Minto Road–Connaught Place junction and proceeded 1.5 kilometres to the venue, with opposition leaders travelling in open buses or jeeps through crowds of supporters.

The rally was preceded on October 31 by a symbolic "public impeachment" of Kumar at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence, where former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar presided and a resolution calling for his removal was adopted. The resolution accused Kumar of facilitating electoral manipulation and undermining the Election Commission's independence. The Indian Express newspaper had reported in September that Kumar made key decisions relating to the revision exercise despite objections from the two other election commissioners on more than a dozen occasions.

Demonstrators chanted slogans such as "save the vote, save the country" and "vote thief, give up power," while banners demanded Kumar's resignation and the reversal of the electoral roll changes. Individual protesters cited personal experiences of family members being wrongly deleted from voter rolls. Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda dismissed the demonstration as a "carefully orchestrated drama" and accused opposition parties of conspiring to plunge the nation into anarchy. The BJP and Election Commission deny allegations of partisan manipulation, maintaining that wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol through established procedures.

Analysts characterised the protests and growing opposition support as Modi's most serious political challenge since taking office in 2014, though his government remains stable and India's next general election is not scheduled until 2029. Opposition parties, student organisations and the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have staged near-daily demonstrations since late September demanding electoral reforms and Kumar's resignation.