BENGALURU — The INDIA bloc parties in Karnataka will stage a large protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on November 5, targeting alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and MLC B.K. Hariprasad announced on Tuesday at a joint press conference of INDIA bloc leaders at the KPCC office, Zee News reported.

Source: Zee News — INDIA Bloc to protest against SIR, CEC Gyanesh Kumar in Bengaluru on November 5

Hariprasad said the Bengaluru event would carry forward the demonstration the alliance held at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on November 1, which also raised the alleged SIR irregularities and Kumar. He said the bloc's leaders had agreed in Delhi to take the agitation to taluk and block levels across the country, and that Karnataka would open with a state-level protest in Bengaluru, followed by demonstrations in districts and taluks, Zee News reported. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has agreed to participate, while Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar would join after completing his Cabinet meeting, ANI reported.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

The demands, as stated by the alliance

CPI(M) state secretary K. Prakash said the alliance is demanding the scrapping of the SIR process, the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and democratisation of the process of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner, in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court. He also demanded withdrawal of the law granting permanent immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner, and said the alliance had decided to intensify and decentralise the agitation across Karnataka after the November 5 protest, Zee News reported.

Source: Zee News — INDIA Bloc to protest against SIR, CEC Gyanesh Kumar in Bengaluru on November 5

Hariprasad alleged that the BJP and the RSS were attempting to undermine the democratic system by misusing constitutional institutions, and said the agitation would continue until Gyanesh Kumar resigned — an allegation the BJP rejects. Leaders present at the press conference included CPI leader Sathi Sundaresh, Forward Bloc leaders Mahantesh and Shivashankar and Ali, CPI(ML) leader Clifton D'Rozario and KPCC media and communications chairman Ramesh Babu, Zee News reported. ANI reported that leaders of the CPI(M), Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party and Indian Union Muslim League are expected to participate in the Bengaluru protest.

Source: ANI via Daily Prabhat

The BJP's position

The BJP, which is running a counter-mobilisation under the slogan 'Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy', rejects the opposition's allegations. BJP vice-president Ram Madhav, addressing a press conference in Jammu on Tuesday, said the SIR process is a constitutional process that has been completed in many states, and called all the accusations made by the Congress about it completely false. Dismissing the Congress claim that 13 crore names had been deleted, he said the deletions were due to deaths and migration, ANI reported. The figure of 13 crore deletions is the opposition's allegation and has not been independently verified.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

What happens next: the Freedom Park protest is scheduled for Wednesday, November 5, with district units asked to hold simultaneous demonstrations across Karnataka demanding Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, ANI reported. The SIR confrontation has become a major political flashpoint ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, with the opposition alleging wrongful deletion of voters and the BJP maintaining the exercise is necessary for clean and accurate electoral rolls.