Prakash Raj to join Bengaluru protest against voter list deletions

Actor Prakash Raj and civil society organisations are gathering at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park on Thursday, 8 October, to protest against large-scale deletions from Karnataka’s voter lists.

The demonstration begins at 10:30 am with a People’s Tribunal focused on the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. People whose names were struck off the rolls are scheduled to present their accounts directly to the assembly. That hearing will be followed by a "chappal protest" organised in solidarity with women.

CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka announced the schedule publicly, calling on citizens across Karnataka to turn out in numbers. Ranka said the gathering would directly confront the disenfranchisement of eligible voters before moving to the demonstration supporting women.

Demands for rollbacks and an election chief's exit

The groups organising the tribunal want every voter deletion carried out during the SIR process revoked and the previous electoral rolls fully restored.

They are also demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging severe procedural irregularities in how the revision was handled. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke stated that Kumar should face criminal charges over the exercise and that the current appointment process for election commissioners must be replaced by an independent system.

Prakash Raj endorsed the protest on social media, describing it as an essential public fight to protect democratic rights and confirming that victims of the SIR process from across the state would take part. Dipke and spokesperson Saurav Das are also scheduled to address the gathering alongside youth groups.

Allegations of police notices ahead of Delhi agitation

The Bengaluru action precedes another planned demonstration at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on 10 October. Speaking earlier at a press conference in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Dipke alleged that law enforcement agencies were attempting to intimidate activists to keep them from travelling to the capital.

Dipke stated that police in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, had served formal notices on local activists asking how their travel was financed and claiming the upcoming Delhi protest could turn violent. He said similar notices had been issued by Rajasthan CID.

"How do the police know so early that the agitation would be violent? Have they planned anything in advance?" Dipke asked, adding that the group’s work invokes Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar rather than unlawful disruption.

While the primary focus of the Bengaluru tribunal remains voter list revisions, organisers have also tied the day's chappal demonstration to broader civil rights and women's safety grievances, including allegations of police mistreatment of female journalists during past demonstrations in the national capital.