At least 3,000 people were detained across Delhi on Saturday as massive police action countered the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) call to gather at Jantar Mantar to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the poll process. Those detained included four former chief ministers: AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee, and the Left’s Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar.

Most of the detainees were released by night, though the CJP’s top leadership and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee remained in custody as of 12:15 am. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were detained from the plane as soon as they landed in Delhi.

Protest spread across the capital

As Jantar Mantar was off-limits, the protest spread to large parts of Delhi. The CJP has vowed to march to Jantar Mantar every day, while police said the heavy security arrangements will continue. The Congress-led INDIA bloc has also called for a protest on Monday.

The detainees were held at multiple locations across the capital amid heavy police and paramilitary deployment, barricades and restrictions on movement. Police cited the denial of permission for the protest. In preparations for the crackdown, 45 metro stations’ gates remained shut for 24 hours till 10 pm on Saturday, over 250 trains were cancelled, and the internet was suspended in a 4-km radius around Jantar Mantar. At least 25,000 personnel were deployed.

Many protesters were detained from their homes and hotel rooms before they could join the protest, including YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who was detained from neighbouring Gurugram.

Reactions pour in

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, in Chennai for a student outreach event, urged people to keep protesting and said PM Modi was destroying democracy. Gandhi led protests in Delhi on four days this week, and on Friday the INDIA bloc handed a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu.

Those detained also included Communist leaders MA Baby, Brinda Karat and Dipankar Bhattacharya, activists Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Gopal Rai, and TMC leaders Derek O’Brien, Dola Sen and Saket Gokhale.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad defended Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, saying the country would be governed by Parliament, not by the streets. The protest call saw support in Mumbai, where police detained around 200 people at the August Kranti Maidan, including Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi and actor Imran Khan.

Arvind Kejriwal was detained outside his Lodhi Estate residence as he marched towards Jantar Mantar and was released later in the evening. Mamata Banerjee was detained at South Avenue after being stopped from going to Jantar Mantar, wearing a band-aid over her mouth. Activist Sonam Wangchuk warned he would consider a hunger strike or foot march if those held were not released by Sunday.

The INDIA bloc’s memorandum to the President demanded Kumar’s resignation, suspension of the SIR, restoration of deleted voters and a return to paper ballots.