A large protest against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls was held at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on October 8, with opposition parties, civil society groups, activists and members of the public demanding accountability over alleged irregularities in the process.
The state-level protest and a public hearing titled ‘Janata Nyayalaya’ were organised by a coalition of secular parties and public-interest organisations opposed to the voter-list revision exercise. The programme was led by the CJP organisation and was described as an event for people who claimed to have been affected by the revision process.
According to Prajavani, thousands of people gathered at Freedom Park, while participants from different parts of Karnataka continued to arrive at the venue. Protest songs were performed during the programme, and coalition leaders took part in the proceedings from the stage.
The organisers said three retired Supreme Court judges would hear the problems raised by people affected by the revision. Writer Devanur Mahadeva, actor and social activist Prakash Raj, CJP leaders Abhijit Dipke, Sourav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and economist Parakala Prabhakar were among those listed as participants.
The protestors demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that irregularities had occurred during the SIR process. Abhijit Dipke was quoted as saying that the protest would continue until the demand was met. “Authority may be with you, but the streets are ours. From here, we will reclaim our democracy,” he said, according to the report.
The gathering also included private-school teachers and members of the public. CJP activists said the protest would remain peaceful and that they would not resort to violence. The report also carried an allegation attributed to senior BJP sources that right-wing extremist groups were being organised across the country to attack peaceful protestors. That claim was presented as an allegation in the report and was not independently established in the supplied material.
Separately, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president B.K. Hariprasad and Congress workers held a protest outside the KPCC headquarters, also demanding action over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise and the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar.
The events place voter-list revision at the centre of a wider public dispute over electoral administration in Karnataka. The Freedom Park gathering was intended to document grievances through the public hearing, while the parallel party protest focused on political pressure against the election authorities. The supplied report does not provide the number of voter records affected, the specific objections filed by citizens, or an official response from the Election Commission to the allegations.
The coalition’s public hearing and protest at Freedom Park were scheduled as the next platform for recording and hearing complaints from people who said they had been affected by the revision process.
