New Delhi: A protest march against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls gathered near Gole Dak Khana in central Delhi on Friday and began moving towards the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters amid tightened security. Organised by the Delhi Coordination Committee of the ‘People Against SIR’ platform, the demonstration forms part of a nationwide call by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the civil society platform.
Around 100-150 people assembled at Gole Dak Khana, at the intersection of Kalibari Marg and Bhai Vir Singh Marg, before the march proceeded. Participants were scheduled to gather from 1 pm near Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, Gole Dak Khana and Gol Market before heading to the ECI office near Patel Chowk. Student groups including the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), along with activists from Delhi, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, joined the action. Security was intensified around the ECI headquarters and Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, with traffic diversions in place and deployment of Central Armed Police Forces extended amid concerns over flash protests.
The ‘People Against SIR’ platform, a coalition of students, farmers, workers, women, Adivasis, Dalits, minorities and civil rights activists formed earlier this month at Surjeet Bhavan, claims support from over 300 organisations. It has demanded the outright scrapping of the SIR, restoration of voter lists to their pre-2024 version with updates through social audits, the removal and prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and amendments to the Election Commissioners Act, 2023. Slogans such as “Scrap Illegal SIR! Remove and Prosecute Gyanesh! Reset Our Voter List!” and calls for a “People’s March to Reclaim Democracy” have defined the campaign. The platform has stated that marches would proceed without seeking police permission at every location and that, if halted, participants would hold peaceful assemblies or a “Jan Sansad” (People’s Parliament).
The SKM, which led the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation against the farm laws, has extended full support. Its member organisations are submitting memorandums to President Droupadi Murmu through district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates across the country, demanding the scrapping of the SIR, restoration of voting rights to an estimated 13.41 crore people allegedly deleted from electoral rolls, and action against Kumar. Protests are simultaneously underway or planned at district and tehsil headquarters and state capitals in multiple states. Various trade unions and civil society organisations have pledged support to the farmers’ and students’ mobilisation.
The SIR is a door-to-door verification exercise launched by the ECI to remove deceased, duplicate and ineligible entries from electoral rolls. It began in Bihar in 2025 and has been rolled out in phases across states and Union Territories. The ECI has maintained that the process aims to clean legacy data and ensure only eligible electors remain registered. Critics, including opposition parties, civil society groups and now farmers’ unions, allege large-scale disenfranchisement of genuine voters—particularly migrants, the poor and marginalised communities—through arbitrary deletions, “logical discrepancies” and procedural hurdles. Claims of around 13 crore names being removed have fuelled weeks of protests, previous detentions in Delhi, and legal challenges, including petitions in the Supreme Court. The ECI has rejected allegations of partisan intent.
As the march advanced through central Delhi on Friday afternoon, the action marked a further escalation of the campaign that organisers say will continue until the SIR is rolled back, deleted names are restored, and accountability is fixed on the Election Commission. Live developments are being tracked as security personnel monitor the route to the ECI headquarters.