Delhi fortifies protest route as opposition march nears

Delhi was placed under heavy security on Tuesday as opposition leaders prepared to march from Parliament’s Makar Dwar towards the Election Commission of India headquarters, prompting large deployments of police and Central Armed Police Forces along the proposed route.

Barricades were erected outside Parliament and near Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission’s office, while security personnel took positions at key intersections in central Delhi. Police were preparing to regulate access to sensitive areas and prevent protesters from breaching security cordons around government buildings.

The march was scheduled amid an escalating confrontation between opposition parties and the Election Commission over electoral procedures, voter rolls and allegations concerning the conduct of election authorities. Opposition leaders have sought to take their objections directly to the constitutional body responsible for supervising elections.

Senior opposition figures were expected to assemble near Makar Dwar before proceeding towards the commission’s headquarters. Security arrangements were strengthened in anticipation of a sizeable gathering involving members of Parliament and party workers, with police maintaining multiple layers of barricades along possible approaches to the commission.

Personnel from Delhi Police units and central forces were stationed around Parliament Street and adjoining areas. Officers were also deployed around the Election Commission complex, where access was being closely controlled ahead of the planned demonstration.

Police preparations were focused on maintaining order while managing movement around Parliament, government offices and major roads in the New Delhi district. Traffic restrictions and diversions were expected where necessary depending on the size and movement of the gathering.

The demonstration comes as opposition parties intensify scrutiny of the Election Commission over voter registration and electoral-roll revisions. Opposition leaders have accused the poll authority of failing to adequately address questions they have raised about additions, deletions and other changes involving voter lists.

The Election Commission has rejected allegations that electoral processes are being manipulated and has maintained that voter-roll revisions are governed by statutory procedures, prescribed forms and safeguards available to electors and political parties.

The confrontation has also moved into the Supreme Court, where questions surrounding voter-registration procedures and changes to prescribed documentation have drawn judicial attention. The court’s interventions have added another dimension to the political dispute over how electoral rolls are maintained and revised.

Opposition parties have argued that concerns involving electoral rolls require greater transparency because errors or improper deletions could affect voting rights. Election authorities, however, have maintained that revision exercises are intended to ensure rolls remain accurate and that mechanisms exist for eligible voters to seek inclusion or challenge decisions.

Tuesday’s security operation reflected the sensitivity surrounding demonstrations near Parliament and the Election Commission, both located within a heavily protected administrative zone. Police routinely impose restrictions around such installations when large political gatherings are planned, particularly when protesters intend to move between protected locations.

Authorities were expected to assess the situation as opposition MPs gathered, with further restrictions possible if participants attempted to proceed beyond designated security barriers. Officers were positioned to prevent disruption to Parliament-related activity and movement around nearby government offices.

The planned march is part of a wider opposition campaign seeking answers from the Election Commission over electoral-roll management and decisions affecting voter registration. Several parties have demanded greater disclosure of the processes used to revise voter lists and have called for stronger safeguards against wrongful exclusion.

Election officials have repeatedly said recognised political parties participate in roll-revision exercises through booth-level agents and have opportunities to submit claims and objections. Individual electors can also seek corrections or restoration of their names through procedures prescribed under election law.

Dipke challenges CEC over disputed voter declaration

Cockroach Janta founder Abhijit Dipke has challenged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a disputed voter-enrolment declaration after the Supreme Court said it had not approved any modified version of Form 6.

Dipke, reacting on X on Monday, asked how the form could have been modified without the court’s approval and who had ordered the change. He alleged that Kumar was not acting independently, accused him of serving “political bosses” and called him the “biggest traitor of India”. The accusations are Dipke’s political claims and have not been established by the court.

The Supreme Court’s remarks came while a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant heard a petition challenging decisions and software changes allegedly introduced during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The bench also comprised Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.

“Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us,” the Chief Justice said, adding that the court wanted to examine the official record to determine who, if anyone, had modified it. The bench issued notice and sought the Election Commission’s response rather than reaching any finding on responsibility or illegality.

The distinction is significant because the Election Commission maintains that Form 6 itself was never amended. Commission officials said an additional declaration was attached to the statutory form for the SIR exercise, and argued that the declaration had the Supreme Court’s backing. They rejected assertions that Kumar had unilaterally altered Form 6.

Form 6 is prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and is used by eligible citizens seeking inclusion in an electoral roll. The contested SIR declaration sought additional information linking applicants, or specified relatives, to electoral rolls from an earlier intensive revision.

The dispute intensified after the Election Commission said in a September 26 statement that the declaration attached to Form 6 for the SIR had been upheld by the Supreme Court. It also said that forms prescribed under the 1960 rules would apply outside SIR periods.

Following Monday’s hearing, Commission officials reiterated that the Supreme Court had upheld the declaration attached through the Bihar SIR order of June 24, 2025, and that this was different from changing the statutory Form 6. That position leaves a central factual and legal question for the court: whether the online enrolment process amounted to a modification of the prescribed form or merely required a separate SIR-specific declaration.

The petition was filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi. Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for him, raised the Form 6 issue and argued that additional information had been sought from people applying for enrolment. The petition challenges decisions, guidelines and software-related steps attributed to Kumar and seeks scrutiny of the manner in which they were introduced.

The bench did not accept the petitioner’s allegations as proved. It indicated that the Commission’s records would be necessary before determining what had been changed, who authorised it and whether the process complied with the governing legal framework.

Dipke’s intervention sharpened the political pressure already facing the poll panel. His Cockroach Janta movement has been campaigning for Kumar’s resignation and has organised protests over the SIR and alleged irregularities in electoral-roll management. The Election Commission has denied wrongdoing and has maintained that its institutional decisions were taken through the Commission’s established process.

Other political critics also seized on the court’s observation, but the Election Commission disputed claims that the Chief Election Commissioner had personally and illegally rewritten the form. Its officials said the SIR orders and the September 26 position had the approval of the full Commission, including Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

Adhikari widens medical-record dispute with Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has warned former chief minister Mamata Banerjee that further medical documents could be made public if she pursues questions over the disclosure of records concerning her 2021 Nandigram leg injury.

Adhikari issued the warning on Monday after Banerjee's lawyer served legal notices connected to state-run SSKM Hospital and the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, seeking an explanation for how her medical records allegedly reached the chief minister and entered the public domain without her consent.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting at Nabanna, Adhikari said he could produce additional material, including X-ray plates and MRI reports. He told Banerjee not to probe the issue too deeply and said the source of the documents could also be disclosed if necessary.

Adhikari maintained that the records he possessed had not come from SSKM Hospital. He did not identify their source, but said he would reveal where they came from if required. He also made claims about documents kept at Nabanna by the previous administration, without establishing that those records were the source of the medical material he displayed.

Banerjee's counsel, Arka Nag, sent the notice by email to senior doctors associated with SSKM and Bangur Institute, while a copy was also sent to the state health department's principal secretary. The notice sought details about the alleged disclosure and questioned whether Banerjee's consent had been obtained before confidential medical information was made public.

The dispute centres on a document Adhikari displayed at a press conference on Saturday, which he identified as a March 11, 2021 report from the Department of Radio Diagnosis at Bangur Institute. He said the document recorded no evidence of a fracture and used it to allege that Banerjee had fabricated the injury during the 2021 Assembly election campaign.

That allegation remains disputed. A report showing no fracture does not by itself establish that no injury occurred, and accounts from the time described Banerjee as having suffered injuries to her left ankle and foot, as well as complaints involving other parts of her body. She was treated at SSKM Hospital and subsequently campaigned in a wheelchair with her leg in a cast.

Adhikari has also said his government will investigate what he describes as false claims surrounding the episode. No finding from such an inquiry has yet established that Banerjee staged or fabricated her injuries.

The renewed dispute has emerged as Nandigram again becomes an electoral focus. Adhikari defeated Banerjee there in the 2021 Assembly election after a closely fought contest, while Banerjee's Trinamool Congress retained power across West Bengal. The constituency is now facing a by-election, adding an immediate political dimension to the confrontation.

The original incident occurred on March 10, 2021, while Banerjee was campaigning in Nandigram. She said at the time that several people had pushed her near her vehicle, causing the door to strike her leg. The Election Commission later concluded, after considering reports from special observers and the state administration, that the evidence did not support a premeditated attack.

The commission treated the episode as involving a security lapse and took action against officials responsible for Banerjee's protection. Its findings did not amount to a determination that Banerjee had invented her injuries, a distinction that has become relevant as the medical controversy has resurfaced.

Banerjee's legal notice shifts part of the dispute from the political arena to questions of medical confidentiality and custody of patient records. Her lawyer has alleged that disclosure without permission would breach the confidentiality owed to a patient and has sought an explanation from the doctors concerned.

The state health department has been drawn into the matter because the institutions involved are government-run. Adhikari said the department should forward Banerjee's complaint to him, while signalling that he intended to respond politically to any attempt to challenge his possession or publication of the records.

Supreme Court presses Delhi on women's night safety

The Supreme Court has told authorities that every woman in Delhi-NCR must be able to feel safe in public spaces late at night, stressing that crime-prevention measures must function effectively on the ground rather than exist only on paper.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran, hearing a suo motu case concerning sexual assaults in the National Capital Region, said on Monday that women should feel secure even at 11 pm while travelling on roads or using the metro. The judges said prevention had to be the central objective of policing, not merely action after an offence.

The court expressed concern over a perception that women were unsafe in parts of the capital, particularly vulnerable pockets, and told Delhi Police to strengthen deterrence against people prone to committing sexual offences. It called for firm policing against anti-social elements while emphasising visible and effective preventive action.

The bench also focused on surveillance, questioning the value of installing CCTV cameras unless footage is continuously monitored and can trigger timely intervention. It raised the need for a control-room or “war room” approach capable of translating surveillance into an immediate police response when suspicious activity is detected.

Police were asked to reinforce beat patrolling at public places, including transport facilities, and strengthen points where police control room vehicles are stationed. The court stressed grassroots policing and said public confidence depended on officers being accessible and responsive rather than safety arrangements remaining administrative exercises.

The hearing follows the court’s September 28 decision to take suo motu cognisance of a series of sexual offences involving women and girls across Delhi-NCR. The court had then described the cases as raising serious questions about the security of public spaces and the ability of law-enforcement and civil authorities to prevent avoidable risks.

That order directed Delhi Police and other authorities to undertake time-bound safety measures within four weeks. Dedicated teams in every police district were ordered to survey vulnerable locations, including isolated stretches, parks, transport hubs, markets and areas around educational institutions. District-wise vulnerability maps are to identify deficiencies such as poor lighting, inadequate surveillance and insufficient patrolling.

The court also ordered lighting and CCTV audits covering parks and vulnerable zones, with non-functional equipment to be repaired and additional cameras or lights installed where necessary. Similar checks were directed for metro stations, bus stops, bus terminals, railway stations and other major public-transport facilities, especially those in or near areas assessed as vulnerable.

Patrolling is to be intensified in identified locations, particularly during evenings and early mornings, with designated officers responsible for specific areas and periodic inspections. Mobile checkpoints and vehicle inspections were also ordered, alongside enforcement of the prohibition on aftermarket tinted or solar-control films on vehicle windows.

The September order arose partly from the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj Park and complaints of sexual harassment involving students near Lady Shri Ram College for Women. The court also took note of the alleged gang rape and killing of a teenage girl in Swaroop Nagar and the alleged sexual assault of a minor inside a moving sleeper bus.

In the bus case, the vehicle allegedly travelled more than 47 kilometres from Greater Noida towards Delhi without being intercepted. The court said the circumstances invited a painful comparison with the 2012 Nirbhaya case and questioned whether law-enforcement systems had made meaningful progress since then.

The judges have linked public safety to the constitutional guarantee of life and personal liberty under Article 21, saying roads, parks, buses, metro stations, subways and footbridges cannot become high-risk areas because of inadequate illumination, surveillance or policing.

Police register case after Nedduru mosque-side gathering

Police in Telangana’s Rangareddy district have taken suo motu cognisance after videos showing a 10-day shakha programme concluding immediately outside a mosque in Nedduru village circulated online, while a local officer disputed claims that the event was organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The Kandukur police acted after images and video clips from the gathering spread across social media, drawing questions over the decision to conduct the programme beside a place of worship. Police said the locality remained peaceful and instructed a person who had posted material from the event to remove the posts.

The footage and photographs show participants assembled on the road or open space directly in front of the mosque. Material posted online described the gathering as the final day of a 10-day “Shakha Saptaham” and referred to a Bharat Mata Puja and other activities.

SS Reddy, whose social-media account carries posts about local RSS activities, uploaded photographs and videos on October 4. In his accompanying description, he said a Bharat Mata Puja and other programmes had been conducted on the tenth and final day at the “Nedunuru Shakha” in Kandukur Khanda of Rangareddy district.

The online description did not identify the mosque as the setting. Separately circulated images and videos, however, clearly placed the concluding programme immediately outside the religious building. Other social-media posts alleged that “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised during the gathering and questioned why the authorities had permitted an event of that nature so close to a mosque.

Police have not publicly established that the gathering caused any disturbance at the mosque or led to violence. A Kandukur police officer said the area was peaceful and rejected the assertion that the event was connected to the RSS, despite the terminology and captions used in material posted by Reddy and circulated by other accounts.

That discrepancy has become central to the questions surrounding the episode. The material available online describes the programme as a shakha and associates it with activities commonly linked to RSS gatherings, but the police position, as stated after the footage surfaced, is that the event was not related to the organisation.

No detailed police statement explaining the basis for that denial had been made public by Monday night. The officer also declined to provide further particulars about the suo motu action, including the precise provisions, if any, invoked by police or whether organisers had obtained permission for the gathering.

There was also no verified public statement from the RSS addressing the Nedduru event or clarifying whether the participants or organisers were formally associated with it. In the absence of such confirmation, the identity of the organisers remains disputed between the descriptions attached to the circulating material and the account given by police.

The episode attracted attention chiefly because of the programme’s proximity to the mosque rather than any confirmed confrontation. Social-media users questioning the event argued that authorities should exercise particular caution when political, ideological or religiously expressive gatherings are held immediately beside another community’s place of worship.

The available footage does not by itself establish whether the space outside the mosque is public land, whether the mosque authorities objected before or during the programme, or what permissions were required or secured. Police have not disclosed those details.

The distinction is significant because questions about permission, public-order precautions and the use of space near a religious site depend on the circumstances of the gathering and the applicable local rules. No evidence has emerged publicly that worship at the mosque was interrupted.

Nedduru is within the Kandukur area of Rangareddy district, part of the wider Hyderabad region. The controversy moved beyond the village after the photographs and videos were reposted by accounts questioning the administration’s handling of the event.

Police intervention followed the online circulation rather than a publicly disclosed complaint from mosque representatives. The direction to remove the social-media posts was also confirmed by the local officer, though no reason for that instruction was publicly detailed.

Mamata sets 15-day return deadline for TMC rebels

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has given MPs and MLAs who deserted her faction 15 days to return, warning that those who stay away beyond the deadline will no longer have a place in the party.

The former West Bengal chief minister delivered the message by telephone on Sunday to a large party gathering at Chopra in Uttar Dinajpur, as her camp sought to rebuild its organisation after a damaging post-election split.

“Many of the MLAs and MPs we helped get elected are traitors; there is no place for them here,” Banerjee said. “As for the MLAs and MPs who left us — if they come back within 15 days, it is fine; otherwise, there will be no place for them here.”

Her ultimatum amounts to a time-limited offer of reconciliation to elected representatives who broke ranks after the West Bengal Assembly election, while signalling that her faction intends to draw a line under defections as it reorganises.

Banerjee told supporters that ordinary workers, rather than senior leaders, were the party’s real strength and asserted that she could rebuild the organisation she founded in 1998. She also said her faction would return to power, seeking to rally cadres after its Assembly election defeat.

The gathering in Chopra was one of the Mamata-led camp’s most prominent organisational displays in north Bengal since the election. Kalyan Banerjee addressed the meeting, while Itahar MLA Mosharraf Hussain was among the leaders present.

The appeal comes amid unresolved disputes over the political and parliamentary status of defectors. Twenty rebel TMC MPs who aligned themselves with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, or NCPI, are facing petitions seeking their disqualification from the Lok Sabha under the anti-defection law.

TMC national general secretary and Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee submitted separate petitions to Speaker Om Birla in June, arguing that the MPs had voluntarily given up their party membership. The rebel MPs have sought recognition separately and have contested the Mamata faction’s position.

The rupture followed a struggle for control of the organisation after the Assembly polls. A group of legislators rallied behind a rival camp, while the 20 Lok Sabha members moved towards the NCPI and backed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Those moves left Banerjee fighting on organisational, electoral-symbol and parliamentary fronts, making the question of returning lawmakers important for her faction.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has asked the 20 MPs to submit responses to the disqualification petitions by October 8 after granting them additional time. Their status therefore remains unresolved, with parliamentary records continuing to be central to the dispute.

A parallel contest over the TMC name and its flowers-and-grass election symbol is before the Election Commission. The Supreme Court last month directed the commission to decide the factional dispute within three months after allowing the rival sides four weeks to complete their pleadings.

Pending that decision, the Election Commission froze the established TMC name and symbol and assigned temporary identities for electoral purposes to competing camps. Banerjee has challenged the interim action before the Supreme Court.

Against that backdrop, the 15-day offer carries organisational significance beyond the Uttar Dinajpur gathering. It gives defectors a defined window to re-enter Banerjee’s camp while the Election Commission considers competing claims over the party organisation and symbol and parliamentary proceedings continue against rebel MPs.

Banerjee also used her address to attack the Election Commission, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party would remain in power as long as Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was in charge. The allegation was political and she did not provide evidence at the meeting to substantiate it.

She linked the effort to strengthen her faction with the wider opposition INDIA alliance, arguing that the grouping could not be strong without the Trinamool Congress and urging supporters who wanted to fight the BJP to reinforce her party.

Owaisi signals Hyderabad protests over Form 7 misuse

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has threatened large-scale protests in Hyderabad if allegedly false Form 7 applications are used to remove eligible voters during the Special Intensive Revision of Telangana’s electoral rolls.

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP, speaking at the 57th Jalsa-e-Milad-un-Nabi at Milad Maidan on Saturday, October 3, urged the Election Commission to act against anyone filing fraudulent objections. He said his party would not remain silent if genuine Muslim voters were targeted for deletion.

Owaisi said protests larger than demonstrations held at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar could take place on Hyderabad’s streets if the alleged practice continued. He accused BJP and Sangh Parivar activists of seeking to use Form 7 to remove Muslim names, an allegation rejected by the BJP.

The dispute has intensified after complaints involving Form 7 applications surfaced in Musheerabad and Goshamahal constituencies. Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy said on Sunday that disputed applications examined by election authorities in the two constituencies were incomplete or inadequately filled and had been rejected.

The CEO’s office has also said strict action would be taken if inquiries established that people were being targeted through bulk applications. Reddy had earlier said applications received in bulk must be properly investigated and verified before any deletion, with electoral authorities required to pass reasoned orders. Election officials have stressed that incomplete applications will not be acted upon and that each contested entry must be assessed under procedure before a registration officer decides.

Election Commission rules make Form 7 the prescribed application for objecting to the proposed inclusion of a person or seeking deletion of an existing entry in an electoral roll. Permitted grounds include death, being under age, permanent relocation, duplicate enrolment and lack of citizenship.

The Commission’s guidelines state that an applicant must provide their name, electoral photo identity card number and contact details, specify the elector whose entry is challenged and give the reason for the objection. The burden of substantiating the stated ground rests with the applicant. A false declaration is punishable under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

Owaisi questioned applications in which, he alleged, details identifying the objector were missing. He asked the Election Commission, Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer and district election authorities to scrutinise Form 7 submissions and establish who had filed them before acting on requests for deletion.

The controversy followed a complaint concerning Musheerabad, where applications were filed seeking deletion of 31 electors, including a Congress booth-level agent and members of his family. The applications were alleged to have been submitted by a BJP booth-level agent on grounds including duplicate enrolment. Election officials conducted inquiries into the objections.

Another dispute arose in Goshamahal after a booth-level officer refused to accept a set of pre-printed Form 7 applications that did not satisfy prescribed requirements. Telangana Congress circulated a video of the encounter while alleging an attempt at bulk deletion of voters.

The BJP has denied that its booth-level agents submitted bulk applications improperly. Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao said merely filing Form 7 did not result in a voter being removed and argued that election officials conduct field inquiries before taking a deletion decision.

BJP representatives also challenged Owaisi to provide evidence of wrongdoing to the competent authorities. Party spokesperson N V Subhash defended the use of Form 7 against people whom he described as Rohingyas lacking citizenship, while accusing AIMIM, Congress and BRS of supporting their enrolment. Those assertions have not established that the Hyderabad electors named in the disputed applications were ineligible.

Owaisi’s intervention puts additional political pressure on election authorities as the claims-and-objections stage of the SIR approaches its October 7 deadline. The revision has brought heightened scrutiny of deletion requests because objections can affect an elector’s inclusion in the final roll.

TVK enters INDIA bloc, reshaping Tamil Nadu alignment

Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam has formally joined the INDIA bloc in Tamil Nadu, bringing Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s ruling party into the national opposition coalition after months of state-level cooperation with Congress and other allies.

The move was confirmed on Saturday at a meeting of INDIA constituents at Sathyamurthy Bhavan, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee headquarters in Chennai. TVK was represented by Aadhav Arjuna, its general secretary for election campaign management and a state minister, and party leader Maria Wilson.

TNCC president B Manickam Tagore described TVK’s entry as a “historic day” and said it would strengthen the alliance in Tamil Nadu. The meeting brought together representatives of Congress, TVK, the CPI, CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Indian Union Muslim League.

The gathering also agreed on a coordinated campaign demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over opposition allegations concerning the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Tagore said INDIA parties would stage demonstrations at district headquarters on October 13 and 14, followed by a joint protest in Chennai on October 15 involving leaders of all seven participating parties.

Alliance MPs are also due to march to the Election Commission of India headquarters in New Delhi on October 6 as part of the campaign. The programme gives TVK an immediate role in an opposition mobilisation extending beyond Tamil Nadu and places Vijay’s party within a broader national political framework.

TVK’s formal induction consolidates an alignment that had already developed in Tamil Nadu after this year’s Assembly election. Vijay’s party emerged as the largest party with 108 seats, short of a majority, and formed the government with support from Congress and other partners. In September, TVK and several allies named their state coalition the Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance.

The step into INDIA is nevertheless politically significant because TVK had previously stopped short of joining the national grouping. Tagore said in August that the party could enter the bloc after obtaining its own parliamentary representation. Saturday’s meeting marked a shift from that position and established TVK as a participant despite its present lack of MPs.

The decision also narrows the distinction between Vijay’s state coalition and the Congress-led opposition arrangement nationally. Congress, VCK, MDMK and IUML already work with TVK in Tamil Nadu, while the two Left parties have maintained a more complicated relationship with the Vijay government and did not attend the September meeting at which the state alliance was formally named.

DMK, which had been a principal component of the INDIA formation from Tamil Nadu before losing power in the Assembly election, was absent from Saturday’s meeting. Asked about the absence, Tagore rejected suggestions that it reflected a split and said the opposition platform remained open to political forces opposed to the BJP-led government at the Centre.

The changing alignment has particular importance for Congress, which now has a governing partnership with TVK in Tamil Nadu while remaining the principal national party in INDIA. For Vijay, participation provides a national opposition platform without requiring a new electoral arrangement in the state, where the coalition structure established after the Assembly election is already functioning.

The meeting also indicated that immediate cooperation would centre on electoral issues rather than leadership questions. Vijay’s supporters have previously floated a larger national role for him, but no decision was announced on a prime ministerial face or on any redistribution of leadership positions within INDIA.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko welcomed TVK’s participation and backed the planned statewide demonstrations. The parties’ October programme is focused on their demand for Kumar’s resignation and their objections to the electoral-roll revision process, allegations that election authorities have disputed in broader exchanges with opposition parties.

TVK’s representatives at Saturday’s meeting reflected the party’s growing organisational role alongside its government responsibilities. Aadhav Arjuna, who helped direct TVK’s Assembly campaign, has remained a prominent political strategist after entering the Cabinet.

Bhuyan says mass voter exclusion violates Constitution

Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has said any process that disenfranchises millions of citizens is intrinsically arbitrary and violates the constitutional guarantees of equality and adult suffrage.

Speaking at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad on Sunday, Justice Bhuyan said the Constitution does not contemplate two classes of citizens — those entitled to vote and those denied that right — as controversy continues over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

“If any process results in disenfranchising millions and millions of Indian citizens making them second-class citizens in their own country in the sense of being citizens without a voting right, such a process is intrinsically arbitrary,” he said. “No amount of whataboutery can justify it.”

Justice Bhuyan said such an outcome would strike at the heart of the Constitution and amount to a negation of the constitutional order. He added that a process producing wholesale disenfranchisement would violate Articles 326 and 14, which respectively underpin adult suffrage and equality before law.

The judge was delivering the valedictory address at the 19th Justice Bodh Raj Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition. His comments came against the backdrop of continuing disputes over the SIR, although his address framed the issue principally as a question of constitutional voting rights rather than a ruling on the legality of any particular revision exercise.

Justice Bhuyan is not on the bench that decided the principal challenge to the Bihar SIR. The Supreme Court, in a May 27 judgment delivered by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, upheld the Election Commission’s power to conduct that exercise while examining its purpose, proportionality and procedures.

The Election Commission has since continued the SIR process in other states and Union Territories. Its voter services portal identifies the 2026 exercise and provides facilities for electors to search earlier rolls, submit documents against notices and apply for registration.

Justice Bhuyan stressed that the right to vote, while held in several Supreme Court judgments not to be a fundamental right, is a constitutional right flowing from Article 326. Legislation may regulate its exercise, he said, but cannot travel beyond the constitutional limits imposed by Articles 325 and 326.

Article 326 provides that elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies are to be based on adult suffrage. Citizens aged 18 or above are entitled to be registered as voters unless disqualified on constitutionally permitted grounds including non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime, or corrupt or illegal practice.

Justice Bhuyan linked that guarantee to Article 14, saying universal adult franchise gives practical content to political equality. He said the value of a billionaire’s vote is the same as that of a rickshaw puller, illustrating the constitutional principle that economic or social status cannot determine the weight of a citizen’s electoral voice.

He also referred to Article 325, which provides for one general electoral roll for each territorial constituency and bars exclusion from a roll solely on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.

Addressing deletion from electoral rolls, Justice Bhuyan invoked the Supreme Court’s 1995 ruling in Lal Babu Hussain versus Electoral Registration Officer. He said that, except where a voter has died, a person whose name is already on a roll cannot be removed without notice and an opportunity to be heard.

The right to vote or to be included on the voters’ list could not be detached from the persona of a citizen, he said, comparing such separation to taking the soul out of the body.

Justice Bhuyan said Article 326 could not be tinkered with by any authority and that no court could endorse or condone action contrary to it. “No one is above the Constitution,” he said.

Bengal voter appeals cluster in Muslim-heavy seats

Appeals seeking to remove voters already cleared for inclusion in West Bengal’s electoral rolls were concentrated disproportionately in constituencies with larger Muslim populations, an analysis of Election Commission data and tribunal records has found.

The analysis, based on constituency-level appeal figures, electoral-roll data and demographic information, identified a strong statistical relationship between the Muslim share of a constituency’s population and the rate of appeals challenging inclusion. It does not, however, establish the religion of every elector challenged or prove the motive behind individual appeals.

Election Commission figures submitted to the Supreme Court on September 16 showed that 38,31,429 appeals had been filed before tribunals following the Special Intensive Revision of West Bengal’s electoral rolls. Of these, 22,21,118 were filed by people challenging their exclusion or deletion, while 16,10,311 challenged the inclusion of names.

The constituency analysis found that seats where Muslims comprise more than 60 per cent of the population recorded 7.85 appeals against inclusion for every 100 electors. Constituencies with Muslim populations below 20 per cent recorded 0.80 such appeals per 100 electors, nearly one-tenth of that rate.

Researchers calculated a correlation coefficient of 0.767 between a constituency’s Muslim population share and the rate of appeals against inclusion, with a reported probability value below 0.0001. No comparable statistical relationship was found with the Scheduled Caste population share.

Malda and Murshidabad emerged as the principal centres of the pattern. Thirty-four Assembly constituencies across the two districts accounted for an estimated 6,36,873 appeals against inclusion, close to two-fifths of the statewide total.

Sujapur, where Muslims constitute about 75.44 per cent of the population, recorded an estimated 61,285 appeals against inclusion, the highest absolute figure among constituencies. Chanchal, where Muslims account for 51.96 per cent, recorded about 35,007 such appeals out of 38,564 appeals overall.

During the revision, 73,901 Chanchal electors had been sent for adjudication. Judicial officers subsequently cleared 69,731 and disqualified 4,170, giving the constituency a rejection rate of 5.6 per cent. The subsequent appeals against inclusion therefore challenged roughly half of those cleared.

Across Malda’s 12 constituencies, an estimated 58.4 per cent of appeals challenged inclusion. Habibpur, with a Muslim population of 4.64 per cent, had the district’s lowest estimated anti-inclusion share at 31.6 per cent, while Englishbazar, with a 19.57 per cent Muslim population, had the second-lowest at 39 per cent.

Murshidabad recorded 3,26,266 estimated appeals against inclusion, representing 43.6 per cent of its appeals. Evidence from Appellate Tribunal No. 11 also sheds light on who initiated many challenges. Orders dated May 8 and May 11 identify the state’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer as the appellant in cases seeking removal of electors already cleared.

Retired Justice Indrajit Chatterjee, who presides over Tribunal No. 11 covering 11 Murshidabad constituencies, has said roughly 2.54 lakh of about 6.36 lakh appeals before his tribunal were filed by the Additional Chief Electoral Officer. An independent constituency-based estimate put appeals against inclusion in those seats at about 2.61 lakh, or 41.1 per cent of the docket.

The Election Commission’s Supreme Court affidavit disclosed the statewide division between appeals against exclusion and inclusion but did not identify who filed the 16.10 lakh inclusion challenges. Questions over authorisation have also surfaced within the commission. Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu was reported to have sought clarification in August about who authorised appeals filed on the commission’s behalf and their procedural basis.

The commission has maintained before the Supreme Court that the revision did not alter West Bengal’s 2026 Assembly election outcome and has disputed arguments linking unresolved appeals directly to results. It also proposed increasing the number of appellate tribunals to accelerate disposal.

Only 1,26,194 of the 38,31,429 appeals had been decided when the commission filed its September affidavit, leaving 37,05,235 pending. Of the cases then disposed of, official figures showed 1,13,943 resulted in inclusion and 8,649 in exclusion.

Supporters split over tactics as protests widen

Differences among supporters of Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora have surfaced over protest tactics, even as the two leaders publicly maintain solidarity in the campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The disagreement has played out largely on social media after contrasting scenes from demonstrations in Mumbai and New Delhi. CJP supporters were able to hold a gathering at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on October 2, while protesters attempting to reach Jantar Mantar in the capital encountered barricades, prohibitory orders and repeated detentions.

Questions over the contrasting outcomes prompted an exchange involving CJP spokesperson Saurav Das. Responding to criticism that CJP protesters could demonstrate in Mumbai while members of the National Students’ Union of India and Indian Youth Congress were detained in Delhi, Das argued that those detained immediately should reconsider their strategy rather than blame others.

His response drew criticism from users who circulated footage of Bora and other demonstrators being detained, with some accusing him of dismissing the difficulties faced by protesters in Delhi. The exchange exposed tactical differences among sections supporting a campaign whose participants broadly share demands over electoral rolls and Kumar’s position.

Dipke and Bora, however, have sought to prevent those arguments from becoming a personal rivalry. When an X user described Bora as more talented than Dipke, the CJP founder publicly agreed. Bora responded that the emphasis should be on solidarity rather than comparison and said they were fighting together. Dipke answered with the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”.

Their public show of unity came as Bora remained at the centre of confrontations between demonstrators and police in New Delhi. Hundreds of protesters, including Bora and activist Yogendra Yadav, were detained for several hours on Sunday as demonstrations demanding Kumar’s resignation entered a third consecutive day.

Bora was detained while leading a march from the Andhra Bhavan Canteen towards Jantar Mantar. Protesters split into groups and moved towards Ashoka Road, where police erected barricades. Police sources put Sunday’s detentions at about 250, including AISA, Aam Aadmi Party and Indian Youth Congress workers. Bora was taken to Narela police station and released later that evening.

Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita remained in force in the New Delhi district, and roads around Jantar Mantar and Parliament Street were restricted. Police deployed buses and riot-control vehicles as protesters continued trying to reach the demonstration area.

The Delhi protest also drew society activists and members of political groups, underscoring the loose coalition behind the agitation and the difficulty of maintaining one strategy across organisations with different structures.

The agitation centres on allegations that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls has wrongly excluded eligible voters and benefited the governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The Election Commission and the government have denied allegations of manipulation. The Commission says the voter-verification exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased or otherwise ineligible entries, and has directed officials to register eligible voters who were omitted.

CJP launched its latest nationwide campaign with the Mumbai protest, saying demonstrations would continue until Kumar resigned. The group has announced further mobilisation in several cities and a major gathering in Delhi on October 10.

The widening protest has also drawn political organisations into arguments over who built the movement and whose methods have been effective. Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj faced criticism after referring to “side players” while accusing what he called an ecosystem hostile to the earlier Jantar Mantar agitation of trying to appropriate it after its growth.

Student groups and Congress supporters objected to the description, saying it diminished Bora’s organising role. Bora had already become a prominent figure during the earlier student agitation over examination irregularities, while CJP grew from an online satirical initiative into a youth-led protest network.

CJP protesters pack Shivaji Park demanding CEC resignation

Thousands of protesters gathered at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Friday despite police denying permission for the demonstration, as the Cockroach Janta Party intensified its campaign demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.

The Gandhi Jayanti protest, led by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, drew a predominantly young crowd carrying national flags, placards and banners questioning the Election Commission’s handling of electoral rolls. Police maintained a heavy presence around Shivaji Park and Dadar as organisers went ahead with the gathering after their application to hold it at the ground was rejected.

Dipke said the campaign would move to Delhi if Kumar did not step down, announcing another demonstration at Jantar Mantar on October 10. He said the planned agitation would be peaceful and called on people concerned about free and fair elections to participate.

The CJP has accused the Election Commission of serious irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and has sought greater transparency in the process. Its allegations remain contested, and the Election Commission has maintained that electoral-roll revisions are conducted under established legal procedures.

Friday’s turnout included actors Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, singer-composer Vishal Dadlani and Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson. CJP co-conveners Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were also present alongside Dipke.

Estimates of the crowd varied. Multiple accounts placed attendance in the thousands, while one local account put the gathering at about 4,000 and another estimated more than 10,000. No authoritative police crowd figure was immediately available, making a precise attendance number difficult to establish.

The protest followed the Mumbai Police decision to refuse permission for the October 2 gathering at Shivaji Park. Dipke had responded to the refusal by saying the group would proceed with a “Jail Bharo Andolan” if citizens were prevented from demonstrating. Organisers subsequently reiterated that Shivaji Park would remain the venue.

A complaint was later lodged at Shivaji Park police station over the demonstration being held without permission. The complainant cited a Bombay High Court order restricting protests at the ground and argued that demonstrations should be conducted at designated locations. The filing of the complaint did not by itself establish criminal liability against the organisers.

The CJP’s principal grievance centres on the Special Intensive Revision and questions surrounding changes to voter rolls. Opposition groups have alleged that eligible voters were improperly excluded and have demanded accountability from the Election Commission. The poll body has rejected allegations of partisan wrongdoing and defended the revision framework as lawful.

The Election Commission last week ordered a review of its voter-roll software after questions emerged about the operation of the revision system. The review is intended to examine whether the software and associated procedures comply with legal requirements. The Commission also announced measures for election officials to contact voters whose records contain discrepancies, reducing the need for affected citizens to visit government offices.

Dipke used his Shivaji Park address to criticise the BJP-led central government and Kumar, while also contrasting the policing of Friday’s Mumbai gathering with police action during an earlier CJP protest in Delhi. He thanked Mumbai Police for its handling of the demonstration but sharply criticised Delhi Police over its response to protesters there.

The Mumbai gathering coincided with demonstrations in Delhi involving the Aam Aadmi Party, Left-linked student organisations and civil society groups. Hundreds of people were detained in the capital as protesters attempted to reach Jantar Mantar, where restrictions had been imposed.

At Shivaji Park, demonstrators used satire, slogans and pop-culture references on placards to press their demand for Kumar to leave office. Some residents and local businesses, however, complained that the gathering caused disruption in the surrounding neighbourhood, adding a local dispute over the choice of venue to the wider confrontation over electoral-roll revisions.

Dipke said the CJP was prepared to sustain its campaign for three months. The group has presented Friday’s Mumbai mobilisation as the opening stage of a broader series of demonstrations, with the announced October 10 gathering in Delhi dependent on Kumar remaining in office.

Warring tenders Punjab Congress resignation to Rahul Gandhi

Amarinder Singh Raja Warring formally resigned as Punjab Congress president on Friday after meeting Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, ending a four-and-a-half-year tenure at the head of the state unit.

Warring, the Congress MP from Ludhiana, said after the meeting that he had handed his resignation to Gandhi and briefed him on the political situation in Punjab, the party’s organisational challenges and its strengths ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.

The resignation was followed hours later by the appointment of Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge approved Singh’s appointment with immediate effect, completing a leadership change that had been signalled a day earlier by Warring himself.

Warring had changed his biography on X on Thursday, first describing himself as “Former President INC Punjab” and then as “Former PPCC President”, before the party had formally announced a replacement. The change intensified speculation over an organisational reshuffle after weeks of internal differences within the Punjab unit.

Speaking after his meeting with Gandhi, Warring said the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha had sought his assessment of conditions on the ground, including the Congress’s position and its approach towards the Aam Aadmi Party government.

“I shared with him my four-and-a-half years of experience as the Punjab Congress state president, what are the challenges we have, how we have to fight those challenges and where our strengths are,” Warring said, describing those issues as the context of the discussion.

He thanked Gandhi for entrusting him with the state organisation and said he remained available for any responsibility assigned by the Congress. Warring had taken over the Punjab unit in April 2022, following the party’s defeat in that year’s Assembly election, when it won 18 of the state’s 117 seats.

Warring also addressed questions about the circumstances surrounding his departure, saying he had formed an impression that Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot, who is in charge of Punjab, may have favoured a change in the state leadership. He stressed that he had no concrete evidence for that view.

“I feel that Sachin Pilot may have thought that Raja should be removed. I do not have any concrete evidence for this,” Warring told journalists. He said there had been no detailed discussion with Pilot over whether he should continue as state president.

The leadership transition follows months of visible differences among senior Punjab Congress figures. A section associated with former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had sought a change at the top of the state organisation, while Warring’s continuation had remained a point of contention within the unit.

Pilot had taken charge of Congress affairs in Punjab after replacing Bhupesh Baghel as the party’s state in-charge. His consultations with Punjab leaders formed part of the central leadership’s assessment of the organisation as it prepares for the next Assembly election.

Pargat Singh’s appointment settled immediate speculation over Warring’s successor. The former hockey captain has represented Jalandhar Cantonment in the Punjab Assembly since 2012 and previously served as a minister in the state government led by Channi.

The change places Pargat Singh in charge of a state unit that is seeking to manage factional differences while preparing to challenge the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and other rivals in the Assembly election due in 2027. The Congress had retained Warring in the state president’s post during an organisational exercise earlier this year before opting for another change.

Warring, meanwhile, indicated that he intended to take a break after leaving the post. He said he had worked continuously during his tenure and would remain a Congress worker despite relinquishing the organisational position.

Murmu assent clears Gujarat uniform civil code

President Droupadi Murmu has assented to the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code Bill, 2026, clearing the constitutional stage required for Gujarat to bring a common framework for marriage, divorce, succession and live-in relationships into force.

The President granted assent on September 17, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan records. The legislation was subsequently published in the Gujarat Government Gazette on October 1 as the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code, 2026, or Gujarat Act No. 15 of 2026.

The law does not take effect automatically with its publication. Its commencement clause provides that the state government will appoint the date on which it comes into force through a separate notification in the gazette. Gujarat must also frame and notify rules needed to administer the code.

The legislation creates a common statutory framework for personal civil matters across religious communities, while retaining specified constitutional exemptions. It covers marriage and divorce, succession and inheritance, and live-in relationships, including their registration and termination.

Members of Scheduled Tribes are excluded from the code. The exemption also extends to persons or groups whose customary rights are protected under Part XXI of the Constitution, which contains temporary, transitional and special provisions applying to specified states and communities.

The code extends throughout Gujarat and also applies to residents of the state who live outside its territorial boundaries, according to the legislation.

Among its central provisions, the law requires marriage registration and establishes common conditions for marriage. It prohibits a person from marrying while a spouse is living and prescribes a minimum marriage age of 21 for men and 18 for women. It also provides a statutory structure for divorce rather than leaving the matter to separate religion-based personal laws covered by the code.

The legislation also regulates live-in relationships. Partners are required to submit statements of their relationship to the designated registrar, subject to conditions and procedures laid down in the law. Children born from live-in relationships are recognised for legal purposes, while the code provides a mechanism for women to seek maintenance after desertion by a live-in partner.

Succession provisions set out rules for distribution of property where a person dies without a valid will. The framework provides inheritance rights without distinctions that existed under some personal-law systems and sets out shares and priorities among eligible heirs, including spouses, children and parents.

The Act also permits registration processes to be conducted through prescribed authorities and creates penalties for failures to comply, with operational details dependent on the rules that the government will issue.

The Gujarat Legislative Assembly passed the Bill on March 24 after a debate lasting more than seven hours. The measure had been prepared following recommendations from a state-appointed committee chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, which examined the proposed framework before submitting its report to the government.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel tabled the Bill in the Assembly. The state government presented the measure as an effort to establish uniformity in civil law and strengthen equal treatment in matters including marriage and inheritance. Opposition parties challenged aspects of the legislation during the Assembly debate, including its scope and the government's approach to personal laws.

Presidential assent was required because the state legislation operates in fields where existing central laws and personal-law statutes may overlap. Article 254 of the Constitution provides a mechanism under which a state law on a Concurrent List subject that conflicts with an existing parliamentary law can prevail within that state when it has been reserved for, and receives, the President's assent, subject to Parliament's power to enact subsequent legislation.

Gujarat follows Uttarakhand, which enacted its Uniform Civil Code in 2024 and brought it into operation in January 2025. Assam's Uniform Civil Code Bill, 2026, has also received presidential assent, on September 29, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan's published list of state Bills.

Dipke reacts to Jantar Mantar internet slowdown

Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke has responded to reports of slow internet around Jantar Mantar during Friday’s protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, declaring on social media: “The dictator is scared!!! Really scared!!!”

Dipke did not identify the person he was referring to, and there was no official confirmation that internet services had been deliberately restricted. Reports from the area described connectivity problems as police imposed extensive security measures across central New Delhi ahead of demonstrations demanding Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Delhi Police had denied permission for the October 2 gathering and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita across the New Delhi district. The restrictions barred unauthorised assemblies and demonstrations. Barricades were erected on approaches to Jantar Mantar, traffic was diverted and entry and exit at several Delhi Metro stations were temporarily closed. Authorities had also advised commuters to avoid affected routes around Connaught Place, Parliament Street and adjoining parts of the New Delhi district as regulated movement and diversions remained in force during Friday's demonstration there.

Hundreds of protesters nevertheless attempted to reach the demonstration site. Estimates of detentions varied, with accounts putting the number from more than 500 to about 1,000. Those detained included opposition politicians, student activists and members of civil-society groups. The protest was backed by organisations including the All India Students’ Association and political groups opposed to the Election Commission’s handling of the electoral-roll revision.

The internet disruption became another point of contention because no formal shutdown order was publicly announced. Reports from central Delhi described mobile internet as unusually slow near the protest zone, but the cause could not be independently established. Neither Dipke’s post nor the available official information provided evidence linking the connectivity problems to an intentional government action.

The Delhi demonstration was separate from the CJP’s mobilisation in Mumbai, where Dipke addressed thousands of supporters at Shivaji Park on Friday. The youth-led group has demanded Kumar’s resignation and challenged the conduct of the SIR, alleging that eligible voters have been removed from electoral rolls. The Election Commission has rejected allegations of wrongdoing and has maintained that the revision is intended to ensure accurate and lawful voter lists.

Dipke subsequently announced that the CJP would organise another demonstration at Jantar Mantar on October 10 if Kumar did not resign. He said supporters from across the country would march to Delhi and added that, if police stopped them before they reached the designated site, they would protest wherever they were halted.

He also said the proposed October 10 mobilisation would be peaceful and invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s approach to protest. The announcement followed the Mumbai demonstration, where the CJP said it was prepared to continue its campaign over electoral rolls for an extended period.

The controversy surrounding the SIR has intensified amid questions from opposition parties, activists and sections of civil society about voter deletions, documentation requirements and the Election Commission’s decision-making. The Commission has defended the exercise as part of its constitutional responsibility to maintain electoral rolls and has said eligible citizens have avenues to register or correct their entries.

Its voter services portal continues to provide facilities connected with the 2026 SIR, including checking names against earlier rolls, submitting documents in response to notices and filing Form 6 for new voter registration. Critics, however, argue that the scale and procedures of the revision risk excluding legitimate voters, a contention the Commission disputes.

Friday’s Delhi mobilisation had been called by student and civil-society groups, with Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha and advocate Prashant Bhushan among those associated with the protest call. Police said permission had not been granted and cited public-order requirements while enforcing restrictions around Jantar Mantar.

Fadnavis rejects SIR protest claims as fabricated

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday dismissed allegations surrounding the Election Commission’s voter-roll revision exercise as a “fabricated narrative”, as protesters gathered at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park demanding greater scrutiny of the electoral process.

The demonstration brought together activists associated with the Cockroach Janata Party and civil society participants who questioned the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and sought safeguards against wrongful deletion or exclusion of eligible voters.

Fadnavis rejected the protesters’ central contention that the revision exercise reflected systemic manipulation. He said claims being advanced against the Election Commission of India lacked substance and were being used to create public suspicion about an institution constitutionally responsible for conducting elections.

The chief minister’s intervention sharpened the political dispute over electoral-roll verification, which has become a major point of confrontation between the ruling establishment and groups challenging the manner in which voter lists are being examined.

Protesters at Shivaji Park maintained that their objections were directed at the procedures adopted during the revision and the possibility that eligible electors could face difficulties establishing their entitlement to remain on the rolls. Participants called for transparency, accessible verification mechanisms and effective opportunities to challenge exclusions.

The Election Commission has maintained that electoral-roll revision is intended to improve the accuracy of voter lists by ensuring that eligible citizens are included while removing entries that are duplicate, invalid or otherwise no longer qualify under electoral law. The commission has also stressed the availability of claims and objections procedures for electors affected by revisions.

Opponents of the SIR process have nevertheless raised questions about documentation requirements, verification standards and the practical burden placed on voters. They argue that an exercise involving large numbers of electors requires particularly strong safeguards because errors can affect the exercise of the franchise.

Supporters of the revision counter that periodic scrutiny of electoral rolls is an established administrative requirement and that inaccurate entries can themselves undermine confidence in elections. They have rejected assertions that verification automatically amounts to voter suppression, saying objections should be assessed against specific evidence and the procedures prescribed by the Election Commission.

Fadnavis’s comments came amid broader political arguments over the Election Commission’s functioning and the integrity of electoral rolls. Opposition parties and activist groups have demanded greater disclosure about additions and deletions, while governing-party leaders have accused critics of attempting to discredit the electoral system without substantiating their accusations.

The dispute has placed renewed attention on the safeguards available to voters whose names are omitted or whose eligibility is questioned. Electoral procedures provide avenues for submitting claims, correcting entries and objecting to proposed changes, while decisions taken by registration authorities remain subject to prescribed review mechanisms.

Civil society groups have argued that formal remedies alone may not be sufficient if voters lack information, documentation or easy access to officials. They have called for clearer communication, longer opportunities where necessary to resolve discrepancies and greater publication of data that would allow changes to electoral rolls to be independently examined.

The Election Commission, for its part, has repeatedly emphasised that preparation and revision of electoral rolls are conducted under constitutional and statutory provisions and that eligible voters should use the designated procedures to verify their registration and seek corrections.

Friday’s gathering also reflected the widening public dimension of the SIR controversy. What began largely as a dispute involving political parties and election authorities has increasingly drawn lawyers, campaign groups and other civic participants into arguments over voter eligibility, documentary verification and institutional accountability.

Fadnavis sought to draw a distinction between legitimate scrutiny and what he described as an organised attempt to build an unsupported narrative against the Election Commission. His remarks placed Maharashtra’s government firmly behind the commission’s authority while leaving individual complaints about electoral-roll entries to the mechanisms established under election law.

DTC offers INDIA entry if Mamata excluded

The Democratic Trinamool Congress has offered to join the Congress-led INDIA bloc if former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is excluded from the Opposition alliance, party leader Md Akhruzzaman said on Friday.

Akhruzzaman, a legislator and chief whip associated with Ritabrata Banerjee’s camp, said the DTC wanted a united political fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party but would not enter an alliance that included Mamata Banerjee. He appealed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Sonia Gandhi to consider the demand.

“If the coalition leadership removes her, Democratic Trinamool Congress is ready to join and strengthen the hands of the alliance,” Akhruzzaman said, setting out the faction’s position as Opposition parties intensify their campaign over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

The proposal places the Congress and its allies before a demand arising directly from West Bengal’s fractured Trinamool politics. Mamata Banerjee participated in an INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, alongside Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and leaders of several Opposition parties, where the grouping agreed on joint protests over electoral-roll revision and other election-related issues.

Akhruzzaman accused Mamata Banerjee’s faction of acting in ways that benefited the BJP, including through absences or walkouts during important parliamentary business. He also alleged that she had undermined Opposition unity during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign. Those assertions are political allegations by the DTC leader and have not been established independently.

He argued that the alliance should choose between retaining Mamata Banerjee and accepting the DTC. Akhruzzaman said his faction wanted to fight the BJP collectively and claimed Mamata Banerjee could again distance herself from the Opposition grouping when politically advantageous.

The intervention follows a major rupture in the Trinamool Congress after the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election. Ritabrata Banerjee emerged as the principal figure in a rebel legislative camp that challenged Mamata Banerjee’s authority, while competing groups asserted claims over the party organisation, name and election symbol.

The split became public in June, when 58 of the Trinamool Congress’s 80 MLAs backed Ritabrata Banerjee as leader of the legislature party. The Speaker recognised him as Leader of the Opposition, while Akhruzzaman became chief whip of the rebel bloc. The faction later named senior MLA Arup Roy as its chairperson as it developed a parallel organisational structure.

Mamata Banerjee’s camp has rejected the rival faction’s claim to the original party identity and has pursued the dispute before the Election Commission and the courts. After the poll panel imposed interim names and symbols in September, she challenged the decision and said her group would continue to claim the organisation she founded and led.

The rival claims remain unresolved pending the Election Commission’s formal final determination.

The dispute subsequently reached the Election Commission, which temporarily froze the All India Trinamool Congress name and its Flowers and Grass symbol while the rival claims are examined. For by-elections, the faction associated with Ritabrata Banerjee was allotted the name Democratic Trinamool Congress and the envelope symbol, while Mamata Banerjee’s group received a separate interim name and symbol.

The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to decide the dispute over the Trinamool name and symbol within three months. The court’s direction has put a timetable around a contest that has implications for the political identity and organisational assets claimed by the rival camps.

The DTC’s approach to the INDIA bloc also comes as Opposition parties seek greater coordination over the electoral-roll controversy. At Wednesday’s meeting, the alliance announced programmes including marches and demonstrations, with Kharge calling for greater transparency in additions, deletions and corrections to electoral rolls.

Mamata Banerjee was among the prominent participants at that meeting and backed the alliance’s campaign against the Election Commission’s handling of electoral issues. Her continued participation makes the DTC condition politically significant, although there has been no indication from the Congress leadership that the alliance is considering her exclusion.

Former judges panel opens scrutiny of voter revision

The Lawyers’ Association for Constitution has constituted a five-member commission of former judges to independently examine the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, with a public report targeted for December.

Former Supreme Court judge Madan B. Lokur will chair the Independent Commission of Former Judges on the Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls. Its members are former Supreme Court judge A. K. Patnaik, former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad, former Delhi High Court judge Rekha Sharma and former Patna High Court judge Anjana Prakash.

LAFC said the commission would function autonomously and examine the constitutional and statutory validity of the SIR, the methods used during the exercise and its impact on eligible voters. A central question will be whether eligible citizens remained on electoral rolls while entries that did not qualify were properly excluded.

The commission plans nationwide public hearings, using full and regional benches to receive testimony from affected citizens, civil society organisations and experts. A dedicated research wing will collate and analyse data on additions and deletions from electoral rolls and place its findings before the former judges.

A legal support team will examine legislation, Election Commission notifications and verification procedures to assess compliance with constitutional and statutory safeguards. LAFC said the commission would retain sole responsibility for its findings and recommendations, with sponsoring organisations and supporting committees having no role in determining its substantive conclusions.

The panel will receive strategic legal advice from senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, Chander Uday Singh, Prashanto Chandra Sen, Raju Ramachandran, Rebecca Mammen John, Warisha Farasat and Vrinda Grover. A coordination team and an LAFC-based secretariat will provide operational support.

The inquiry comes as the SIR, undertaken in phases during 2026, remains under legal and political scrutiny over voter inclusion, documentation requirements and deletion procedures. The Election Commission has maintained that the exercise is intended to produce accurate electoral rolls by including all eligible electors and removing ineligible entries.

The Election Commission announced Phase III in May for 16 states and three Union Territories, saying it would take the exercise across the country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, where schedules were to be announced separately after considering census work and weather conditions.

According to the Commission’s Phase III schedule, more than 3.94 lakh booth-level officers were assigned to conduct house-to-house work involving about 36.74 crore electors, assisted by more than 3.42 lakh booth-level agents appointed by political parties. The Commission said the first two phases had covered 13 states and Union Territories with nearly 59 crore electors at the time their respective SIR orders were issued.

Questions surrounding the legal framework for intensive revision have also reached the Supreme Court. In a May judgment arising from the Bihar SIR, the court examined the constitutional and statutory setting governing electoral-roll preparation and stressed the importance of an electoral roll that is accurate, inclusive and legally valid.

The LAFC commission is separate from the Election Commission and from judicial proceedings. Its announced role is fact-finding and legal examination, followed by recommendations rather than binding orders. The association said it was created in response to concerns raised by citizens about the design, implementation and consequences of the SIR.

The proposed field research is intended to give the panel an empirical basis for examining patterns of inclusion and deletion rather than relying only on legal submissions. Testimony gathered through hearings will supplement that data, allowing the commission to consider how verification procedures operated in different regions and affected individual voters.

The inquiry’s scope therefore extends beyond aggregate changes in voter numbers. It will examine the processes used to verify electors, the legal basis for those processes and whether safeguards operated consistently. Public hearings are designed to provide a record of experiences that can be tested alongside electoral-roll data. The commission has not announced powers to compel evidence, and its conclusions will carry the status of an assessment.

Residents resist CJP protest at Shivaji Park

Residents at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park have opposed the Cockroach Janta Party’s planned October 2 demonstration, urging authorities to prevent the gathering after confrontations between locals and CJP organisers.

The dispute intensified ahead of the Gandhi Jayanti protest, which CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said would proceed at the Dadar ground despite Mumbai Police refusing permission. Local residents have submitted objections to the police and civic authorities, citing disruption to traffic, noise, public access and emergency services.

A video circulating on social media showed residents arguing with CJP coordinators near Shivaji Park and objecting to the proposed gathering. Some residents insisted that political demonstrations should be held at designated protest venues such as Azad Maidan rather than at the ground, which is surrounded by homes, schools and hospitals.

Accounts of the confrontation differ on timing. Accounts placed exchanges between residents and CJP members on Tuesday and Wednesday, while another account described local opposition on Thursday. The available footage establishes the confrontation but does not independently resolve the timing of every exchange.

Members of the Shivaji Park Advanced Locality Management group said they were not opposing the democratic right to protest but objected to the repeated use of the area for large political gatherings. They said such events could restrict movement, worsen congestion and make access difficult for senior citizens and emergency vehicles.

Mumbai Police had already rejected CJP’s request to demonstrate at Shivaji Park. Police cited restrictions governing gatherings at the ground, its status as a silence zone, the absence of required civic permission and concerns about traffic, noise and access to nearby hospitals. Organisers were advised to consider an alternative venue.

Dipke, however, said the organisation would continue with its programme and announced a “Jail Bharo” agitation if participants were prevented from protesting. CJP said its demonstration would begin at Gate No. 6 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park and would form the opening stage of a wider campaign in other cities.

The organisation is demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and has raised allegations concerning electoral-roll revisions and the functioning of the Election Commission. It has also sought changes to the process for appointing the chief election commissioner and greater transparency in electoral administration.

CJP’s allegations remain disputed. The Election Commission has defended its procedures and rejected claims that decisions concerning electoral-roll revisions were improperly taken. Opposition parties have separately raised questions over voter rolls and the Special Intensive Revision process, making election administration a focus of political contestation.

Dipke said on Thursday that CJP intended to remain independent of opposition-party protests and would take its campaign beyond Mumbai, with demonstrations planned in other parts of the country before a proposed protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi later in October.

The Shivaji Park dispute has meanwhile centred increasingly on the venue rather than solely on CJP’s demands. Residents have argued that the ground’s role as a recreational and sporting space, together with the concentration of residential buildings and medical facilities around it, makes large demonstrations particularly disruptive.

One resident seen in footage of the confrontation said protesters were free to demonstrate elsewhere but should not use Shivaji Park, describing it as a ground used by children. Another pointed to nearby hospitals and schools and argued that Azad Maidan was better suited for demonstrations.

CJP representatives disputed the resistance they encountered. Pranav Ahire, a member present during one confrontation, questioned whether everyone opposing the group was genuinely a local resident. No independently verified evidence has emerged establishing that those confronting CJP workers were acting on behalf of another organisation.

The Mumbai unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has publicly backed residents opposing the demonstration. That support added a political dimension to a dispute residents have framed primarily around neighbourhood access, safety, noise and the permitted use of the ground.

Supreme Court declines TMC plea over frozen accounts

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to intervene in the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction’s challenge over four debit-frozen bank accounts holding about Rs 804 crore, leaving the dispute before the Calcutta High Court and asking it to accelerate the hearing.

A bench of Justices M. M. Sundresh and P. B. Varale refused to interfere with the High Court’s interim order denying the faction permission to operate the accounts. The judges expressly refrained from examining the merits of the dispute and declined to exercise the Supreme Court’s discretionary jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution.

“We refrain from going into the merits. We are not inclined to exercise our jurisdiction under Article 136. We request high court to expedite the hearing,” the bench said.

The ruling concerns four accounts maintained with Indian Bank that were debit-frozen following a criminal investigation by the West Bengal Police. The investigation arose from a complaint lodged by TMC MLA Biswanath Das amid an internal dispute over control of the party.

The Supreme Court also took note of proceedings before the Election Commission, which has passed an interim order freezing the TMC’s name and election symbol while rival claims over the party remain unresolved. The bench observed that the larger question of entitlement to the money in the accounts could not be separated from the dispute over which faction is entitled to represent the party.

The amount involved in Thursday’s proceedings is about Rs 804 crore, not Rs 440 crore. The Rs 440.42 crore figure relates to a separate set of three HDFC Bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate in July as part of a money-laundering investigation. The Supreme Court proceedings on Thursday concerned four Indian Bank accounts frozen by the state police.

The Calcutta High Court had on August 27 declined to grant interim permission to the Banerjee-led faction to operate the four accounts. It held that granting the requested relief at that stage would undermine an earlier arrangement under which the party was permitted to meet essential day-to-day expenditure.

Before the Supreme Court, the faction challenged the refusal of interim relief and questioned the basis on which the police had frozen the accounts. Its case included objections to alleged procedural deficiencies in the first information reports underpinning the action.

The party told the court that the restrictions had severely affected its operations. During proceedings on the frozen accounts, it submitted that it required at least Rs 12.15 crore a month to sustain organisational activities. The opposing side maintained that an existing court-supervised arrangement already allowed necessary routine expenditure.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing in the matter, drew the court’s attention to the continuing internal party dispute and the criminal investigation. The complainant’s counsel also argued that the earlier arrangement for ordinary expenses meant additional interim access to the accounts was unnecessary while the substantive issues remained before the High Court.

The dispute over the four accounts is distinct from litigation concerning the three HDFC accounts containing Rs 440.42 crore. Those accounts were initially subjected to restrictions connected with a state police case before the Enforcement Directorate separately froze them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The Enforcement Directorate has said its investigation concerns alleged transfers of about Rs 160 crore from TMC accounts to Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd and a related entity between April 2023 and June 2026. Investigators have alleged that funds were routed through linked transactions involving the acquisition and use of an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet and an AgustaWestland 109SP helicopter. Those allegations remain under investigation.

The High Court had earlier created a mechanism allowing limited expenditure from certain party accounts under the supervision of retired High Court judge Justice Subrata Talukdar. The arrangement required designated signatories to submit cheques for essential administrative and legal expenses for verification and countersignature.

Ujjain mosque damaged during road-widening operation

A portion of Ujjain’s Shahi Masjid was damaged on Thursday during dismantling work linked to a road-widening project for the Simhastha Kumbh Mela 2028, with district authorities saying nobody was injured.

Ujjain Collector Roshan Kumar Singh said the affected section at Chhatri Chowk fell within the area required for the project and sustained damage while it was being removed. He said the operation was proceeding peacefully with cooperation from local representatives and residents, while officials continued to monitor the site.

Singh urged people to rely on authentic information and warned that legal action would be taken against anyone spreading rumours, misleading claims or false information through social media or other channels. The appeal followed days of heightened security around the mosque after protests over the road project.

The damage occurred while workers were dismantling a minaret affected by the widening plan. During the operation, part of the structure fell onto another section of the mosque, damaging its outer area. Authorities said all workers were safe and that remedial work was being undertaken.

Police remained deployed around Chhatri Chowk and adjoining areas as the administration sought to prevent a fresh confrontation. Officials maintained communication with representatives of different religious communities and local residents during the operation.

The work is part of a wider programme to improve access through central Ujjain before Simhastha 2028, when the city is expected to receive a large influx of pilgrims. The disputed stretch forms part of a route connecting the Gopal Mandir area towards the Mahakal temple and the Kshipra river.

The Shahi Masjid issue had triggered clashes on September 28 when protesters gathered near the site as work to remove the affected portion was due to proceed. Stones were thrown at police during the confrontation, and security personnel used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Police subsequently detained several people and maintained a substantial presence around the area.

The legal dispute over the project also moved through the Madhya Pradesh High Court. On September 9, a single judge at the court’s Indore bench dismissed petitions challenging notices issued by the Ujjain Municipal Corporation for removal of the portion obstructing the proposed road alignment.

The civic body told the court that the road was being widened to 15 metres and argued that the work was necessary to handle traffic during major religious events, including Simhastha. It said structures along much of the route had already been removed and maintained that the project was being implemented in the larger public interest.

The petitioners, who administer the mosque and described it as registered Waqf property, challenged the municipal action and raised objections to the proposed removal. They subsequently filed appeals against the single-judge ruling.

Those appeals were disposed of by a division bench on September 28 after the petitioners informed the court that the dispute had been settled with the municipal corporation. The bench, comprising Justices Subodh Abhyankar and Jai Kumar Pillai, recorded the settlement and said assurances given by the corporation in its response and interim notice would remain binding on it.

The High Court’s September order recorded the corporation’s position that the route is an important Peshwai and Shahi Sawari corridor used by large numbers of devotees during festivals. The corporation argued that widening was needed to reduce congestion. The court rejected the petitions at that stage, while subsequent appeals ended after the parties concerned placed their settlement before the division bench.

The settlement came on the same day as the confrontation outside the mosque. The administration later proceeded with the removal work under tight security, with members of the local community participating in dismantling portions affected by the project.

The road expansion is among infrastructure works being undertaken across Ujjain for the 2028 gathering. Municipal authorities have said the programme includes widening routes used by pilgrims and improving movement through congested parts of the city.

Shivakumar alleges mass voter deletion conspiracy in Karnataka

Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has accused the BJP and JD of conspiring to remove millions of eligible voters from the state’s electoral rolls through bulk objections filed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Thursday, Shivakumar alleged that pre-filled Form 7 applications had been supplied to party workers and submitted to booth-level officers across several constituencies. He said voters from minority communities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and economically weaker sections were being disproportionately targeted.

Shivakumar put the scale of the alleged exercise at between 50 lakh and 60 lakh additional voters and demanded an immediate criminal investigation. He later went to the office of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar with Cabinet colleagues, submitted a memorandum and began a sit-in seeking registration of cases against those responsible.

The Chief Electoral Officer subsequently directed electoral registration officers in all 224 Assembly constituencies to initiate legal proceedings where an inquiry establishes that applicants knowingly made false statements or declarations while filing claims or objections. The circular referred to reports of bulk Form 7 applications and allegations that some were not genuine, but did not attribute the alleged filings to any political party.

Under Election Commission rules, Form 7 can be used by an elector in a constituency to seek deletion of another person’s name on specified grounds, including death, permanent shifting, duplicate enrolment, being under age or not being a citizen. Objections require scrutiny by the electoral authorities and do not automatically result in deletion.

Shivakumar alleged that large numbers of forms carried voters’ names, addresses and Electoral Photo Identity Card numbers before details of the objectors were entered. He questioned how such information had been assembled and called for an investigation into where the forms were printed, who supplied the electoral data and whether it had been accessed without authorisation.

His memorandum sought constituency-wise and booth-wise scrutiny of unusually large batches of Form 7 applications, particularly those filed between September 22 and 24. It also asked officials to examine the identities of people filing multiple objections, their relationship with the voters concerned and applications that were returned or withdrawn.

The Chief Minister cited thousands of applications in constituencies including Belagavi North, Mudigere, Bhalki, Babaleshwar and Narasimharaja. He also alleged that large batches had been filed and later withdrawn in Ballari and Vijayapura after questions were raised about their validity. The precise statewide number of allegedly improper applications has not been independently established.

Shivakumar displayed copies of forms that he said demonstrated the pattern and alleged that some BJP workers had submitted dozens or hundreds of objections in their own names. He also accused JD functionaries of participating in the exercise. Both allegations remain subject to investigation.

Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra rejected the charge of wrongdoing and said his party’s workers were entitled to bring suspected irregularities in electoral rolls to the Election Commission’s attention. He argued that election officials, rather than political parties, ultimately determine whether a voter’s name should remain on or be removed from the rolls.

Vijayendra also alleged irregular additions to electoral rolls during the revision exercise and said requests for verification were legitimate where party workers suspected ineligible enrolments. The Election Commission’s Form 7 procedure requires supporting grounds and gives electoral registration officers responsibility for deciding objections after the prescribed process.

Shivakumar said the alleged bulk objections had surfaced while the state was already dealing with exclusions and discrepancy notices during the revision. He demanded that officials identify people responsible for any fraudulent filings, examine allegations of forged signatures and determine whether booth-level staff had faced pressure.

Police complaints over alleged irregularities involving Form 7 have been lodged in parts of Karnataka. In Bhalki, a case was registered after allegations that signatures were forged and mobile numbers were improperly entered on applications, adding a criminal-investigation dimension to the wider dispute over the revision process.

Gandhi challenges EC over Belagavi voter deletions

Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission and the BJP of involvement in an alleged attempt to remove nearly 15,000 voters from electoral rolls in Karnataka’s Belagavi region. The Times of India

Gandhi said a surge of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names had been submitted over September 22, 23 and 24. He alleged that Muslims, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes were disproportionately targeted because many voters from those communities did not support the BJP. The New Indian Express

The Congress leader claimed the applications reflected a wider method of manipulating electoral rolls through centrally operated software and bulk filings. He accused BJP functionaries and election officials of colluding in the process. The allegations have not been established by an independent investigation, and the Election Commission had not issued a specific public response to Gandhi’s claims by Thursday night.

Gandhi also questioned why Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer had not registered an FIR over the broader allegations, saying Congress leaders had approached the official seeking criminal action. He repeated his demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign and called for an investigation into Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The New Indian Express

The accusations followed a dispute in Belagavi over bulk Form 7 applications, which are used to object to an entry in an electoral roll or seek deletion of a name under prescribed grounds. Filing an application does not by itself remove a voter: electoral registration authorities are required to examine objections and follow the stipulated process before deleting an entry.

Belagavi Market police registered an FIR on September 30 against BJP functionary Ravi Patil and about 20 to 25 others after a booth-level officer complained of an alleged attempt to seek deletion of 198 voters through Form 7 applications containing false information and forged documents. The Times of India

The complaint concerned voters at polling parts 195 and 196 in Veerabhadra Nagar and alleged that Muslim voters whose names were validly on the rolls had been targeted. Police are investigating the allegations. The registration of the case does not establish the guilt of those named. The Times of India

Belagavi Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Roshan had earlier said no voters had been deleted on the basis of objections submitted at the polling station, an important distinction from claims that names had already been erased. The local controversy began after allegations that people linked to political workers sought signatures from a booth-level officer on a large batch of deletion applications. Hindustan Times

A separate political dispute has centred on Belagavi South BJP MLA Abhay Patil. Congress leaders accused him of seeking removal of 2,598 voters, while Patil rejected that characterisation and said he had sought verification of voters identified in a booth-level agent’s report. He maintained that names should be deleted only if verification found the voters ineligible. The Times of India

The Belagavi allegations surfaced during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which has become a major point of confrontation between the opposition and the Election Commission. Opposition parties have questioned the scale and methods of deletions, while the Commission has maintained that electoral-roll revisions are governed by law and prescribed procedures. Reuters

The Election Commission has also ordered a review of voter-roll software and procedural changes following concerns over exclusions during the revision exercise. Its measures include efforts to identify eligible voters left out of rolls and changes intended to make verification easier for people whose entries have been questioned. Reuters

Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and Cabinet colleagues staged a protest outside the Chief Electoral Officer’s office in Bengaluru on Thursday, demanding criminal investigation of alleged bulk Form 7 filings. Shivakumar said authorities should determine who prepared and submitted the applications and whether identities or signatures had been misused. The Economic Times