Chandigarh

Chandigarh Congress held protest marches on Sunday in Sector 29, Mauli Jagran, and Sector 56. They are alleging vote theft and questioning if the Election Commission is acting fairly.

Party workers carried flags and placards. They raised slogans through the localities and asked for clear rules and fairness in the voting process.

Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky criticised the Centre and the poll body. He said the opposition's concerns about how the Election Commission is working are not being addressed well. I think his message was clear. The Congress movement aims to protect public trust in democracy.

Main Demands

Congress leaders stressed that voting is the main part of democracy. Any doubts about the protection or value of votes are a serious concern.

The party plans to take its concerns to the Chief Justice of India on Monday. They will submit a memorandum highlighting issues about voters' rights and how the electoral process is run.

Congress demands:

• Clear voting rules and fair elections.
• Protection of voters' rights.
• Independent working of the Election Commission.
• Action on alleged vote theft and voting issues.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann criticised the BJP-led Centre on Saturday after several protesters were detained ahead of a planned demonstration by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.

Mann spoke from Chandigarh. He said 80,000 to 90,000 security personnel were deployed. The protesters, he said, are unarmed students who came to stand up for democracy and demand that their votes not be deleted.

Mann Questions SIR Process and Election Commission

On the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, Mann was direct. He claimed votes were deleted through this process while preferred votes were kept. Two Election Commission members admitted they were not consulted about key decisions. He called it a serious alarm bell for democracy.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader also called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. He asked why Centre is scared of Jantar Mantar when Gen-Z is stepping forward to protect the democratic process.

Delhi Police detained around 500 protesters who were trying to reach Jantar Mantar for the CJP protest. Police denied permission to the group, citing security concerns. CJP had called the protest over allegations of voter-list manipulation during SIR and changes related to Form 6, which is used for voter registration.

Whole of Delhi has been turned into a fortress, Mann added, referring to the heavy security buildup.

AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal was detained by Delhi Police on Saturday while joining protests that demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The detention happened in the Lodhi Estate area of New Delhi. Senior AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Saurabh Bharadwaj were also taken into custody.

Kejriwal responded quickly after his detention. In a post on X, he said AAP would not be scared by what he called Modi ji's taanashahi. He described the restrictions around the planned Jantar Mantar 2.0 protest as worse than the Emergency. He also claimed the crackdown was meant to silence questions about vote chori and protect the CEC.

"Gyanesh must go, but so must Modi," he had said earlier in the day.

The protest was called by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The EC and government firmly rejected allegations of voter manipulation. They said the revision simply removes duplicate and ineligible entries from voter lists.

Meanwhile, AAP's protest also reached Chandigarh, where former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was detained along with several party leaders and workers. Sisodia and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema led a demonstration near the office of the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer. Protesters tried to march towards the office but were stopped by barricades.

Before his detention, Sisodia publicly backed the CJP protest. "On behalf of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, I support the CJP protest. We also demand that Gyanesh Kumar resign," he said. He also accused the BJP-led Centre of manipulating elections through voter-list changes and trying to silence young protesters travelling to Delhi.

CJP leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained at Delhi airport after their flight landed from Mumbai.

Kejriwal's detention in Delhi and Sisodia's in Chandigarh mark AAP's most direct involvement so far in the nationwide movement against the Election Commission. Protests over alleged voter-list problems have now spread well beyond the national capital.

New Delhi: Opposition MPs from the INDIA bloc held a protest march on Tuesday. They walked from Makar Dwar in Parliament to Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi. Slogans called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav did not hold back. He accused the Election Commission of acting in a biased way election after election. "The Election Commission cheated in 2017, in 2019, in 2022, and in 2024," Yadav said. He added that in Bengal it was "a completely open game played by them."

He also raised the UP by-elections, saying they clearly showed how votes were stolen. Yadav pointed to a poster about the "Chandigarh trick", a reference to the disputed Chandigarh mayoral polls. Another photo on his placard showed a revolver. He said this proved that voting was being stopped and people were prevented from casting their ballots.

The march is part of the Opposition's broader "Save Democracy" campaign. Several INDIA bloc leaders have been holding public meetings and demonstrations against the Commission. The electoral roll concerns have only made the confrontation worse. This protest is likely to raise the political temperature around the poll panel.

Chandigarh, 5 October 2026: Punjab Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, cleared several decisions on Monday. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema shared the details after the meeting.

Election work gets support. Cabinet approved creating new posts in the office of Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab. The government says this will help speed up election-related work and official functioning. This comes at a time when the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of the 2026 electoral rolls is already running in the state. For voters, this means smoother handling of roll revisions and related processes.

Nursing rules updated. Cabinet also approved changes to the Punjab Nursing Education Service Rules, 2016. Cheema explained that after the 2021 restructuring of the nursing education department, new service rules were not framed. About 1,467 nursing staff were recruited during this period. Employees had been facing real difficulties over promotions and service matters. Now, with the amended rules in place, things should be clearer. Punjab Nurses Registration Council also handles nursing education, registration and professional standards work.

Non-teaching staff regularised. Another decision makes non-teaching employees working under PITS permanent by bringing their services under the society. This gives job stability to employees who have served for a long time. Computer teachers had already been brought under the society earlier. The move now covers the remaining non-teaching employees too.

Tourism push for Pathankot. Cabinet also discussed developing Punjab's tourism sector, with focus on Pathankot and its surrounding areas. Sitting close to Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Pathankot is a busy travel hub with a steady flow of tourists heading to hill destinations. The government feels that highlighting natural and historical attractions here can create jobs and lift the local economy.

Cheema said the decisions aim to strengthen administrative setups, fix employee-related problems and push development across different areas in the state.

Manish Tewari, the Chandigarh MP and former union minister, has publicly backed the impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar if he does not resign.

Speaking to Associate Editor Aditi Tandon in New Delhi, Tewari made a sharp demand. He wants the reasons for the disenfranchisement of all 13 crore people put in the public domain right away. He also wants the voter enrolment exercise to start again under the watch of a joint parliamentary committee.

Why This Matters

13 crore voters is a huge number. Tewari is raising serious questions here. Every party in Parliament should look into what he is saying.