Economist Parakala Prabhakar, the husband of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is set to join a nationwide protest on October 23 against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, according to an ABP Live report carried by TezzBuzz.
Source: TezzBuzz (reporting ABP Live)
The protest, called the People's March to Restore Democracy, has been organised by People Against SIR, an alliance formed on October 14 comprising organisations representing students, youth, farmers, workers, women, Dalits, tribals, minorities, persons with disabilities and transgender people, the report said. Its slogan is “Har haath mein tiranga, har gali mein Jantar Mantar” — a tricolour in every hand and a Jantar Mantar in every street.
Source: News89
Who is expected on the stage
Prabhakar is expected to share the stage with Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke, actor-activist Prakash Raj, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, All India Students' Union president Neha Bora, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, author Tushar Gandhi and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Aishe Ghosh, according to the reports.
“Har gali me Jantar Mantar! Friday, October 23, 2026. People's march to restore democracy. Let's rise to the challenge,” Prabhakar posted on X, according to News89. The alliance has also appealed to parties in the INDIA bloc to join the demonstration, though their participation has not been confirmed.
The demands
The alliance is demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the scrapping of the SIR process and the restoration of the names of voters deleted from the electoral rolls, the reports said. These are the alliance's demands and allegations, and the Election Commission has not responded to this specific protest announcement in the reports reviewed.
Prabhakar, a vocal critic of the government's economic policies, has strongly criticised the SIR exercise and, in his characterisation, described it as a “bloodless political genocide of citizenship” — an allegation reported by TezzBuzz, presented here as his claim, not as an established fact.
Source: TezzBuzz (reporting ABP Live)
The SIR of electoral rolls has become one of the most contested national political issues of the season, and the Finance Minister's own husband joining a protest demanding the Chief Election Commissioner's resignation gives the October 23 march an unusual political profile.