Jantar Mantar sealed, protesters detained: How Delhi protest against EC played out

At 1 pm on Gandhi Jayanti, police officers stood on Janpath Road in Delhi, leaning against a line of barricades blocking the path towards Jantar Mantar.

They watched as 50-60 protesters stood in scattered groups of five or six. Near McDonald's, some danced in protest; others shouted slogans.

"Should we get them inside a bus?" a police officer asked his senior.

"Wait. If they stand in a group of more than 10, then pick them up," the senior officer replied.

The protesters, from opposition parties to student outfits, were gathering in Connaught Place demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

The scene, however, was markedly different from what Jantar Mantar had looked like two months ago. In July, the protest site and adjoining Parliament Street had been packed with protesters after Cockroach Janta Party's Abhijeet Dipke began his hunger strike.

This time, the police weren't taking any chances.

Before a crowd gathered, police sealed the area around the Parliament Street police station and Jantar Mantar. When Aam Aadmi Party's Delhi chief Saurabh Bhardwaj arrived around 10.30 am, he was promptly carried away by police and put in a bus.

For the next five hours, protesters arriving from Ashoka Road, Janpath and Tolstoy Road were stopped at the roundabout near Parliament Street, loaded into buses and taken to Fatehpur Beri and Badarpur police stations.

By the time All India Students' Association National President Neha Bora arrived, flanked by Yogendra Yadav and RTI activist Nikhil Dey, 500 people had already been detained.

Dressed in a red T-shirt, Bohra crossed Ashoka Road and tried entering Parliament Street. Pushed back by the police, she and Yogender Yadav sat down, with supporters chanting slogans.

DCP (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma approached from behind the barricades as police officers in riot control gear lined up.

The three were swiftly picked up, with four police officers carrying each of them, and loaded into a bus -- the 18th vehicle filled up by protesters since morning.

"Gandhi diwas pe gandhi ke desh mein jo ho raha hai, aap dekh rahe hain (On Gandhi Jayanti, in Gandhi's country, you can see what is happening)," Yadav shouted from inside the bus. "This government is acting like the British government. And we are trying to save the country with the flag."

By afternoon, police said over 700 people had been detained, including former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and RJD's Manoj Jha,

In a video tweet shared on X, Atishi said: "We were protesting peacefully at Jantar. The Delhi police picked AAP leaders and workers with barbarism and brutality."

Bharadwaj, sharing a video message before the protest, said, "Protesting is our democratic right. But the police are telling us permission for the demonstration has not been granted... even though six days ago AAP applied for permission here for a peaceful demonstration."

Smaller protest at Janpath went on

Small groups of protesters, comprising college students with backpacks and red gamchhas and middle-aged men and women, remained near Janpath.

At Tolstoy Marg, fists went up and phones came out, and every few minutes a fresh round of sloganeering against the Prime Minister and the CEC broke out from one end of the crowd.

A young man dressed in a red kurta held up a hand-painted poster that read "Gyanesh, it's done bro". The words "vote chori" and "objections" and a book marked "SIR" filled the rest of the sheet, with an EVM in one corner.

"The protest is against Gyanesh and the Election Commission. But there's a larger context I feel. The resignation of CEC Gyanesh isn't the only thing. People are upset with the SIR. This is a disenfranchisement of millions of voters," said Pawan (36), an Andhra-Pradesh based IT professional.

"I've been here for two hours and I've not been able to enter (the protest site). People were just standing but they're being chased and detained," he added.

Another protester, Chhai (26) who lives in Mayur Vihar, said, "I'm here at the protest to ask for accountability from the ECI. I feel it is my duty to do this."

"The buses kept coming. Any sort of major leader who was gathering a crowd or media attention was being detained...," he added.