The INDIA bloc's Karnataka unit held a protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Thursday against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, ANI reported. The protest, which started at 11 a.m. and was scheduled to go on until 2 p.m., follows the alliance's November 1 demonstration at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan and the November 3 announcement of the Bengaluru action, which Awaaz Punjab reported at the time.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

The protest was organised by the Congress, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, Forward Bloc and Samajwadi Party, along with progressive parties, social organisations and student and youth organisations involved in the anti-SIR agitation, and was presided over by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president B.K. Hariprasad, ANI reported.

“In continuation of this, the INDIA bloc has assembled today at Freedom Park, and we are going to start our protest today. All our INDIA bloc members are here. And till Gyanesh Kumar resigns, this protest will continue,” Hariprasad said on Thursday, linking the Bengaluru protest to the November 1 Ramlila Maidan rally addressed by Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

11 a.m.–2 p.m.Duration of the Freedom Park protest
6+INDIA bloc parties organising the protest
3Core demands: scrap SIR, CEC resignation, democratic CEC appointment

The alliance's three core demands, set out by CPI(M) state secretary K. Prakash when the protest was announced, are the scrapping of the SIR process in its entirety, the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and the democratisation of the appointment process for the Chief Election Commissioner in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court, PTI reported. The bloc alleges that constitutional institutions are being misused to undermine democracy — an allegation the Election Commission and the ruling BJP dispute.

Source: PTI via Zee News

Hariprasad said the Bengaluru protest would be followed by demonstrations at district and taluk levels across Karnataka, taking the anti-SIR agitation down to the block level as the alliance had decided in Delhi, PTI reported. The SIR — the Election Commission's intensive revision of electoral rolls — has become the central flashpoint between the opposition and the poll panel, with the opposition alleging wrongful deletions and the Commission maintaining the exercise only purifies the rolls.