On October 12, INDIA bloc leaders led a large march from the Constitution Club to the Supreme Court. The unusual spectacle of a political procession converging on the apex court to seek a halt to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar brought parts of New Delhi’s business, cultural, legal and political districts to a standstill as flag-waving cadres filled the streets.
The following day, Rahul Gandhi hosted INDIA bloc leaders, opposition MPs, civil society representatives and student organisations at his residence for high tea. Describing the campaign as a people’s movement, Gandhi called for a united struggle to restore democracy. “We are fighting together to restore democratic rule, genuine democratic rule, in this country,” he said, flanked by CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby, CPI leader D. Raja, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NCP(SP) leader Supriya Sule, Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress leaders, student leader Neha Bora and lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
These rare scenes of opposition unity and the convergence of different people’s struggles also signal a fresh challenge for the BJP and the Union government, as the protests show no sign of abating. The opposition and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) are both seeking to sustain public attention.
This is not the first time the ruling party has faced protests over an administrative exercise or a policy matter, but the scale is larger, and the issue is central to the perception battle. Unlike the farmers’ protests or the anti-CAA agitation, the current round involves sections of the middle class, youth and women, groups that have been among the BJP’s core supporters.
The BJP’s response over the past few weeks has focused on three points. It has demanded evidence for the allegations, pointed to the Congress’s electoral record and accused the opposition of undermining constitutional institutions.
“Rahul Gandhi is spreading anarchy by making baseless allegations against the Election Commission, the judiciary and constitutional institutions. He should present evidence in support of his allegations of vote theft and identify the voters whose rights had been denied,” former Union minister Anurag Thakur said. The party often cites past instances in which election commissioners were allegedly co-opted by the Congress and later given political positions.
The BJP argues that no concrete cases of voter deletion have yet been presented publicly and that the campaign is instead being mounted ahead of the 2029 elections to dislodge Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party has also cited the Congress-ruled states of Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh to counter the allegations of vote theft.
Party leaders acknowledge that some anti-government sentiment may have emerged, as often happens after 12 years in power, but argue that it has largely been confined to Delhi. “India is much bigger, and Jantar Mantar, where the protests were held, is a minuscule part of it,” a party leader said, adding that these protests were in no way a reflection of how the rest of the country thought. Notably, after the removal of Jantar Mantar from the list of designated protest sites, other available locations like Ramlila Maidan, the CBD Ground in Karkardooma and grounds in Burari are less accessible and, consequently, further from the media spotlight.
As long as protests, including the earlier NEET agitation, were led by the CJP and student bodies, BJP leaders and spokespersons largely handled the response. Now that the challenge has moved more firmly into the political sphere, Union ministers have begun countering it directly. The sharpest and most consequential counter came from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who accused the Congress of trying to protect illegal infiltrators under the cover of its opposition to SIR. He cited BJP victories in elections held without SIR to challenge the opposition’s argument.
Shah referred to BJP victories in local body elections in Gujarat and Rajasthan and the NDA’s performance in Tripura to argue that the opposition’s allegations did not reflect public opinion. He predicted that the BJP-led NDA would return to power in 2029 and said the Congress should prepare for another defeat.
“Mobilising a few thousand sponsored attendees does not make you the voice of the nation,” he said. “India’s true voice resonates in its farmlands, remote hamlets and hinterlands.” This could reverberate in the party’s messaging across the country.
As the battle becomes more confrontational, the Centre is unlikely to ask the chief election commissioner to resign, given his constitutional position. Any such move could be portrayed as an admission that the opposition’s allegations had merit, potentially undermining confidence in the electoral process and the government itself. Instead, the government has stressed efforts to ensure that no eligible voter is left out.
One missing element in the government’s defence has been a joint news conference with the Election Commission to signal that the body remains united and that decisions are taken collectively. A carefully worded statement was issued when the controversy first broke, but it did little to counter public perceptions. Last year, a press conference by all three election commissioners sought to address allegations over SIR ahead of the Bihar polls. The combative CEC took questions and responded to the allegations, flanked by the two election commissioners. Kumar had challenged Rahul Gandhi to either submit a sworn affidavit within seven days or apologise to the nation over the “vote chori” allegations.
This time, however, no such joint appearance has taken place. The two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, have themselves reportedly raised objections to certain procedural issues.
Political discussions around the controversy suggest that the government may prefer to wait for the agitation to subside rather than make a concession that the opposition could claim as a victory.
“Opposition can agitate; they have a right to do so,” said BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal. “But increasingly, it is becoming clear that their intention is to disrupt and not improve the system. The successive support that the BJP is getting in every election and on various platforms from the public shows that the people of the country have strong faith in Modi’s leadership, and they consider the BJP the only party that can keep a stable government working for economic development and a strong nation.”
The BJP’s first test will come in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, where elections are due in coming months. There is a belief that local issues coupled with careful planning will matter more to the outcome than the controversy surrounding the Election Commission. Similar issues arose before the Bihar polls but, according to the BJP, had little impact. It therefore argues that electoral contests, and not street protests, will determine the outcome of the current political confrontation.
The government’s longer-term concern, however, is on how it advances legislative initiatives like delimitation and the One Nation, One Election proposal. In the current political mood, fresh legislation on delimitation could prove difficult to pass, as it requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Even parties the government might seek to win over would find it difficult to support such a move while the current confrontation is being framed around the defence of democracy.
Moreover, the previous parliamentary session was disrupted by protests related to the NEET examinations. The upcoming session could see renewed agitation over allegations of vote theft, the removal of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site and police action against young protesters.
If the opposition succeeds in blocking the government’s move on delimitation, it could portray the outcome as evidence that the government had yielded to pressure. That would concern the BJP, which wants to signal to its core constituency and committed supporters that it can withstand pressure. At the same time, it must respond to public concerns.
Going forward, the opposition and the CJP are likely to continue framing the confrontation as a fight for democracy and constitutional values, an argument that resonated with sections of the electorate during the 2024 general election.
“The argument about democracy being under threat is a figment of the opposition’s imagination,” said Agarwal. “India has a vibrant democracy. The opposition’s electoral losses and lack of public support are forcing its leaders to find a scapegoat so that they can continue to fool their own party about leadership failures.”
Away from the harder ideological issues, the opposition is also experimenting with different ways to stay in the news and attract public attention. If the tea gathering at Rahul Gandhi’s residence was an instance of the usual political courtesies extended to allies, joint lunches at public eateries introduced a new form of gourmet politics. After the meals, MPs attempted to march to Jantar Mantar, but the police stopped them.
Cultural idioms and symbols have also featured in Gandhi’s campaign. During the Supreme Court march, he held up a Batman mask and even put one on his 84-year-old party chief, Mallikarjun Kharge. “Our march is a Shiv ki baraat,” Rahul said, inviting anyone and everyone to join. It was perhaps a counterpoint to the BJP’s bhajan clubbing invitations. The BJP, too, may now need to modify its approach.
