INDIA Bloc Floods Delhi's Ramlila Maidan Demanding Election Chief's Removal

NEW DELHI — India's opposition INDIA bloc brought thousands of supporters to Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on Sunday for its "Chalo Dilli" march, demanding the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls. Leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav marched from the Minto Road–Connaught Place junction to the rally ground, where Delhi Police said the demonstration proceeded peacefully under heightened security.

Addressing the rally, Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "stealing votes" and said legal action would follow, while warning that Kumar would be removed from office and jailed. He also said he bore no personal enmity toward Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah or Kumar, framing the fight as one to defend the Constitution. The bloc alleges that 13.2 crore voters were deleted through the revision exercise — a charge it pressed a day earlier at a symbolic "public impeachment" on October 31, when it adopted a motion by a show of hands levelling six charges against Kumar, including conspiring with the ruling BJP to steal elections. Those are the opposition's allegations; the Election Commission's position was not the subject of Sunday's rally speeches.

The BJP hit back sharply, with spokesperson Sambit Patra calling the rally a failure and saying about 40 percent of the venue was vacant, with 5,000 to 7,000 of 28,000 chairs empty in the afternoon, against the opposition's claim of 10 lakh attendees. Kharge, in turn, said the bloc was "not afraid to fight," and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged voter-list manipulation in Uttar Pradesh's 2022 assembly elections. The dispute over the voter rolls — and over Kumar's future — remains unresolved as the revision row heads into its next round.