BENGALURU ERUPTS IN ELECTORAL ROLL PROTEST AS PRAKASH RAJ, DHRUV RATHEE DEMAND CEC’S EXIT

October 8, 2026

Actor-activist Prakash Raj, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke led a protest at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on Thursday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Prakash Raj called for the SIR exercise to be scrapped, arguing that the issue went beyond the deletion of voters and concerned what he described as an attack on the dignity and rights of citizens. He also alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner was acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

The protest was organised by civil society groups and the CJP as a “people’s tribunal” for people claiming to have been affected by the SIR exercise across Karnataka. Rathee alleged that there was “zero transparency and zero accountability” from the Election Commission over the process and said he was participating in the demonstration not for regime change but over concerns surrounding the electoral-roll revision.

Large numbers of women, students and other protesters gathered at Freedom Park, raising slogans demanding the cancellation of SIR and Kumar’s resignation. Posters carried messages including “Error 404 - Name Not Found”, “Don’t erase us, hear us” and “Grand Theft Democracy”, while other demonstrators accused the Election Commission of voter deletion and electoral manipulation.

One protester, a Bengaluru-based software engineer, claimed that his own name had been removed from the electoral roll and said he did not know who had submitted the Form 7 application seeking its deletion.

Organisers said the Bengaluru programme would be followed by a symbolic “Chappal protest” in solidarity with women. Police maintained tight security at Freedom Park to prevent any untoward incident as the demonstration continued.

The Bengaluru protest formed part of a wider mobilisation against the SIR exercise, with Opposition leaders and civil society groups in other parts of the country also demanding greater transparency from the Election Commission and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.