INDIA Bloc Leaders Address Large Rally at Ramlila Maidan Over Voter Roll Revisions

Thousands of supporters of the Congress-led INDIA bloc gathered at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on 1 November 2026 for a rally against alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls and to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Senior leaders, including Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, travelled in open buses from Kharge’s residence before addressing the crowd.

The mobilisation began with a march from the Minto Road–Connaught Place junction around noon. Delhi Police deployed several thousand personnel along with Central Armed Police Forces units. The ground was divided into security zones. Organisers claimed they expected a large turnout, while police estimates placed attendance lower. Protesters raised slogans such as “Vote chor, gaddi chhod” and called for elections to be conducted on ballot paper rather than electronic voting machines.

Rahul Gandhi told the gathering that votes had been deleted and added in multiple states, including in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and described the process as amounting to treason. He said the opposition would pursue legal action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the alleged deletions. Kharge and other leaders echoed calls for the removal of the Election Commissioner. The rally followed a symbolic public impeachment of Kumar held at Kharge’s residence the previous day.

The BJP described the event as a designed drama and questioned turnout figures. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier noted that traders in Connaught Place had asked for the rally to be postponed after Diwali because of business concerns. Some shops remained closed during the day. Mamata Banerjee extended support to civil society groups and Gen Z participants and said West Bengal had been affected by the revision exercise.

The Special Intensive Revision has been under way in several states. Opposition parties have argued that large numbers of voters, particularly from certain communities, were removed without adequate verification. The Election Commission has maintained that the exercise is intended to clean the rolls and that claims of large-scale wrongful deletions are incorrect. The rally marks one of the largest joint opposition gatherings in Delhi in recent months and comes ahead of assembly elections in several states.

Attendance figures remain disputed. The physical capacity of Ramlila Maidan with seating and barriers is estimated by police in the tens of thousands. Leaders from multiple states, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, participated. The event closed with renewed calls for ballot-paper voting and for the Election Commission to restore names that opposition parties say were wrongly deleted.