New Actor: Opposition blocs mobilize to demand CEC resignation

Opposition parties and student groups tried to gather at Jantar Mantar on Gandhi Jayanti to demand Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll revision and mass voter deletions. Delhi Police enforced prohibitory orders that ban unauthorised assemblies, speeches and slogan-shouting, blocking access with barricades and buses. Detentions ranged from over 500 to about 1,100 across the city, with many people picked up before they reached the site.

Mobile internet was shut from 9 am to 9 pm within roughly 1.5 km of Jantar Mantar. Entry and exit at 12 Metro stations, including Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Janpath, New Delhi and Barakhamba, were closed for hours while interchanges stayed open, and the stations were later reopened. Traffic was diverted around Connaught Place, Parliament Street and Ashoka Road.

Those held included AAP’s Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Sanjeev Jha, CPI(M)’s M. A. Baby and Brinda Karat, RJD’s Manoj Jha, AISA president Neha Bora and activist Yogendra Yadav. About 700 members of the SFI were stopped at the Ashoka Road roundabout around 11 am, many detained, and Maktoob Media reporter Fida Fathima was dragged toward a police bus but not taken into custody. The curbs pushed much of the day’s confrontation onto nearby streets even as protesters pressed their demand that Kumar step down.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources