‘Stopped before we could reach Jantar Mantar’: AISA president Neha Bora, Yogendra Yadav detained during protest against CEC
A Delhi student protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was stopped by police, who detained around 350 participants before they could reach Jantar Mantar
A planned student and activist march in Delhi, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over concerns regarding electoral roll revision, was stopped and its participants detained by police before reaching their destination at Jantar Mantar. Approximately 350 individuals, including notable figures, were involved in the demonstration, which organizers described as a peaceful effort to raise issues of transparency within the Election Commission.
A planned student and activist march in Delhi, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over concerns regarding electoral roll revision, was stopped and its participants detained by police before reaching their destination at Jantar Mantar. Approximately 350 individuals, including notable figures, were involved in the demonstration, which organizers described as a peaceful effort to raise issues of transparency within the Election Commission.
A planned student and activist march in Delhi, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over concerns regarding electoral roll revision, was stopped and its participants detained by police before reaching their destination at Jantar Mantar. Approximately 350 individuals, including notable figures, were involved in the demonstration, which organizers described as a peaceful effort to raise issues of transparency within the Election Commission.
The march had barely begun when the police stopped them. Around 350 students and activists had set out from the Vice-President’s House towards Jantar Mantar on Friday, carrying placards and raising slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Among them were All India Students’ Association (AISA) president Neha Bora and activist Yogendra Yadav.
They didn’t reach Jantar Mantar.
Soon after being detained, N Balaji, a close associate of Bora who was part of the march, spoke exclusively to THE WEEK from police custody, recounting how the group was stopped and subsequently taken to the New Friends Colony police station.
A large number of police personnel were deployed along the route as students holding posters reading “Naam kata list se, ab ja tu seat se,” were stopped and taken away in buses.
“We were peacefully marching towards Jantar Mantar. Our only demand is the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar,” Balaji told THE WEEK.
The presence of Bora and Yadav gave the demonstration a wider political and civil-society character, but the mood among the students, Balaji said, remained that of a protest rather than a confrontation.“We were not going there to create any disturbance. We were marching to raise our concerns. But before we could reach Jantar Mantar, the police stopped us,” Balaji said.
For many students, the detention came as a surprise. Many had come to Delhi to participate in a protest they believed should be heard at the capital's designated protest site. Instead, their march ended inside police vehicles.
The protest comes amid an ongoing controversy over the Election Commission's handling of electoral-roll revision, particularly the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with opposition parties and civil society groups raising questions about the process and demanding greater transparency.
The protesters have turned their criticism increasingly towards Kumar himself, with resignation becoming their central demand. “We want the Election Commission to answer questions. We want Gyanesh Kumar to resign,” Balaji said.
“We will continue to raise the issue,” Balaji added.