INDIA bloc marches on Delhi's Ramlila Maidan demanding election chief Gyanesh Kumar's resignation as BJP calls it 'riot-mongering'

India's opposition leaders marched through central Delhi to Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, demanding that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign over the revision of the country's voter rolls. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Supriya Sule and Farooq Abdullah were among those heading to the ground for the "Chalo Dilli" rally.

This report covers the day as far as it has been confirmed; the speeches and the final crowd size had not been reported at the time of writing.

The numbers everyone is arguing about

The size of the crowd was already a political fight before the first speech.

Measure	Figure
Turnout predicted by the opposition	Up to 10 lakh (1 million)
Turnout expected by Delhi Police	About 50,000
Ramlila Maidan capacity, empty	45,000 to 50,000
Capacity with chairs and enclosures	30,000 to 40,000
Police deployed	More than 4,000, plus central armed police companies
Security zones at the ground	14
CCTV cameras	More than 200, plus drones and body cameras

Space outside the ground has been kept for overflow. Overnight stays at the venue are not allowed.

From a mock impeachment to the street

The march comes a day after the alliance staged a symbolic "public impeachment" of Kumar. At Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence on Rajaji Marg, opposition MPs and civil society members passed a resolution against him, in a Parliament-style setting chaired by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

The core complaint is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission's re-verification of voter rolls. The opposition says it strips genuine voters from the lists and has spoken of "vote theft", and it wants the process rolled back. The government and the commission reject those claims.

The route ran from the Minto Road and Connaught Place junction, with senior leaders travelling in open buses from Kharge's home. Delhi Police said no permission had been sought for a march, and organisers pressed ahead.

Shops, traffic and a war of words

The most visible row on the day was over shutters in Connaught Place. Traders had warned in letters to Gandhi that as many as 80 percent of shops might stay shut, a week before Diwali. Gandhi had asked marchers to shop locally, then said on arriving: "We found out that the BJP has forcibly shut down every single shop."

BJP leaders hit back hard. Union Minister Piyush Goyal accused Gandhi of "riot-mongering politics" and said the country would be governed by the Constitution and the people's mandate. Senior BJP leader JP Nadda said India was no banana republic.

What it means if you are in Delhi

Heavy jams were reported at the Sonipat-Delhi Kundli border and the Delhi-Gurugram Sarhaul border, as police checked and diverted vehicles heading in from Punjab and Haryana. Some workers left their vehicles and walked, and there were reports of people pushing through barricades. Anyone travelling through central Delhi on Sunday should expect closures around Connaught Place, Minto Road and Ramlila Maidan into the evening.

The rally's demand has little direct legal route: a Chief Election Commissioner can only be removed by the same process as a Supreme Court judge, which needs a special majority in both houses of Parliament that the opposition does not have. The next test is the commission's own response and the alliance's plan for the rolls still being revised.