India updates: Opposition marches to Supreme Court against election chief

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You can read more about today’s protest march here and follow more related stories here.

We will be closing this live page shortly. But before we do, here’s a recap of the day’s major developments:

• Thousands of protesters, led by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, marched to the Supreme Court in New Delhi to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged vote fraud.
• Left-wing student leader Neha Bora and several other Congress leaders and allies joined the protesters, waving giant India flags and chanting “vote thief” to demand Kumar’s resignation.
• Some protesters broke past police barricades erected to stop them from reaching the court, reported Al Jazeera’s Yashraj Sharma from the Indian capital.
• Gandhi and 10 other opposition figures filed a petition with the Supreme Court against Kumar.
• Delhi police revoked Jantar Mantar, the city’s well-known protest site, of its status as a “designated” protest venue.
• Gandhi said Indians are in a “fight to protect democracy and the constitution” and urged citizens to “raise your voice from wherever you are”.
• BJP leader and federal minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hit back at Gandhi’s Congress party, saying it has “taken to attacking the constitution” because of election losses.

Congress spokeswoman Supriya Shrinate says the protest shows that “people are not going to be scared” and will “fight for [their] right to vote”.

“Look at the number of people out on the streets protesting for their right to vote – that should be a message for [Home Minister] Amit Shah and [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi that … people are not going to be scared, people will stay put, ask questions, fight for [the] right to vote,” she said in comments carried by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

As we reported, Rahul Ghandi and other opposition figures have submitted a petition at India’s Supreme Court against the country’s electoral commission.

Here are 11 petitioners from the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) alliance, according to The Times of India:

• Rahul Ghandi
• Mallikarjun Kharge
• Saugata Roy
• Akhilesh Yadav
• Tejashwi Yadav
• Sanjay Raut
• MA Baby
• Doraisamy Raja
• Mahua Majhi
• Supriya Sule
• E T Mohammed Basheer

Charanjit Singh Channi says that people have come out en masse to protest against the “vote theft”, accusing the Modi government of having “rigged the voter list” in several Indian states.

“They have rigged the voter list and looted the elections in Haryana, Assam and Bihar in this manner. Now, they are preparing to do the same in Punjab,” said Channi, who hails from Punjab.

“That is why people have taken to the streets, to ensure that our votes are not deleted,” he added.

Anirudh Siyag, a PhD student who has joined the protest, says: “The fundamental values of this country are being assaulted, institutions are losing their independence.

“I am here to protest against ⁠this assault,” he told the Reuters news agency.

The Samajwadi Party president is also in New Delhi to join the march to the Supreme Court. He is a key ally of the Congress party as they hope to defeat Modi’s BJP in assembly elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh – India’s most populous state – next year.

Earlier today, when he landed in the capital, a reporter asked about his views on the city’s Jantar Mantar area losing its designation as an authorised protest site.

“The place where we will be protesting will be a Jantar Mantar,” he said.

All metro rail stations that were shut in New Delhi earlier today have been reopened, reports The Times of India newspaper.

Earlier, we had reported that authorities closed six stations in central Delhi as part of ramped-up security measures over the opposition march to the Supreme Court.

The 31-year-old YouTuber has emerged as one of Prime Minister Modi’s most influential critics, using his social media platform and casual, boy-next-door appearance to draw millions of followers.

Rathee, who lives in Germany with his wife but is an Indian national, says he was “kidnapped” by plainclothes police officers from his mother’s New Delhi house on the morning of October 10, when he was planning to join the protest planned at Jantar Mantar by the Cockroach Janta Party.

On Tuesday, he said he had wanted to join the Congress-led protest too, but that there were more than 50 people outside his house, trying to prevent him from leaving.

That was hours after he addressed a press conference, and made a jibe at Modi — who has still not addressed one open press conference since coming to power in 2014. “Press Conferences. Dhruv Rathee: 1 Narendra Modi: 0,” he posted on X.

But Rathee wasn’t always a critic of Modi’s. In fact, he started out as a fan of the PM — only to rapidly get disillusioned once Modi was in office. Such is Rathee’s influence among Indian youth that during the 2024 national elections, opposition parties often played his videos on mobile vans during campaign rallies. Those elections saw Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lose its majority in parliament after a decade, though it managed to cobble together a government with allies.

Read our profile of Dhruv Rathee from 2024 here.

The popular Indian YouTuber says he was “kidnapped” from his home on Saturday morning, after taking part in a protest demanding the resignation of the country’s chief election commissioner.

“These people literally sent thugs to kidnap me,” said Rathee, alleging he was held against his will for some 22 hours. “They dragged me out of my bedroom and down the stairs. I have injuries all over my body.”

Listen to more of his remarks here:

Let’s bring you up to speed:

• Thousands of people are marching to India’s Supreme Court in New Delhi to demand the resignation of the country’s chief election commissioner over alleged vote fraud.
• The “March for Democracy” has been called by the opposition Indian National Congress party. Its leader, Rahul Gandhi, says Indians are in a “fight to protect democracy and the constitution”, and he urged citizens to “raise your voice from wherever you are”.
• Joined by dozens of opposition leaders and activists, Gandhi has taken a bus to the Barakhamba Road junction, from which they will march to the top court.
• Tens of thousands of officers from the security forces have been deployed, and six metro rail stations have been closed as authorities brace for a showdown.
• Delhi Police have stripped Jantar Mantar, the city’s well-known protest site, of its status as a “designated” protest venue.
• A spokesman for India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Gaurav Bhatia, has accused Gandhi of engaging in “political theatre”.

A protester who gave his name as Mehvaish said he could no longer “tolerate the injustices” allegedly meted out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

“We want removal of this government [because] of all the injustices we have suffered in the past 12-13 years,” he told the AFP news agency.

“Now if they take away our right to vote, what is left with us?”

Bora, the national president of the left-wing All India Students’ Association, has also been seen in the bus carrying Rahul Gandhi and other opposition figures as they make their way to the Supreme Court.

The 29-year-old doctoral student has emerged as one of the most visible faces of the protests – the most serious challenge to Modi’s government in ⁠12 years. Her speeches criticising the government and ‌police response to demonstrators are circulating widely online.

Bora gained national attention during the protests in July over alleged leaks of exam papers when she fasted with other activists to demand the resignation of the education minister, who later stepped down.

She has since become a fixture at the demonstrations, returning to the streets despite repeated detentions.