A "people's tribunal" is being held in Bengaluru on Thursday (October 8, 2026) to hear from people across Karnataka who say they were affected by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, according to The Hindu. Actor Prakash Raj said the event would bring together "victims of SIR" from around the State, and confirmed that CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee would take part.
The tribunal is one strand of a wider opposition campaign demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has said he will not stop until Kumar steps down, The Hindu reports.
Why it matters
The SIR process has become the sharpest point of confrontation between the BJP-led government and the INDIA bloc, with opposition parties describing it as a route to large-scale deletion of genuine voters. The dispute has moved from Parliament to the streets, and now to a citizen-led forum in Bengaluru. The demand for the CEC's removal goes to the heart of how elections are administered, and the government's response so far has been to dismiss the protests as politically motivated.
Delhi standoff and fresh FIRs
Opposition MPs tried to reach Jantar Mantar in the national capital on Wednesday (October 7, 2026) as part of a coordinated mobilisation by several parties, but were stopped by police. Leaders said the bloc would mount a larger protest on the ground the following day and that more MPs would join.
Delhi Police sources said at least two fresh FIRs had been registered against Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in connection with the central Delhi protest against the electoral roll revision and the demand for Kumar's removal.
The Congress objected to how Delhi Police handled opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and asked its State units to mark a black day and hold protests on Thursday. The party framed the call as a response to the treatment of its leaders during the Delhi mobilisation.
The Aam Aadmi Party added its own pressure. Hundreds of its workers demonstrated outside the office of the Delhi chief electoral officer at Kashmere Gate on Wednesday, calling for Kumar's resignation. Delhi AAP chief Saurabh Bharadwaj said the party would ask the poll official about the removal of lakhs of Delhi voters' names from the rolls and demand that those names be restored. He said the party had no personal quarrel with the government and described the fight as one for the Constitution and democratic rights, adding that it wanted to cooperate with police.
In Uttar Pradesh, police booked five Samajwadi Party workers and some unidentified people over a protest against Kumar in which slogans were raised, an effigy was burned and a road was blocked, officials said on Wednesday. Police alleged the demonstrators made objectionable remarks against Kumar without permission from the competent authority and gathered on the main road, causing a traffic jam.
The Delhi Police also asked a social media platform to take down or limit access to 11 posts and videos that it said gave a misleading account of police action during a recent protest in the capital. Police said the content could provoke a public reaction and harm law and order.
A delegation to the President, and a bandh in Odisha
INDIA bloc parties also discussed their efforts to secure a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu. Sources said a delegation of 15 leaders had been sought, while 10 members have been cleared to meet the President. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is expected to be part of that delegation, according to The Hindu.
In Odisha, normal life was disrupted in several districts on Thursday as supporters of INDIA bloc parties held demonstrations and blocked roads during a 12-hour bandh. The shutdown was called to protest a new mining law, errors in school textbooks and the alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. Business establishments, petrol pumps, shops and many educational institutions were shut in the morning, and public transport including buses and autorickshaws stayed off the road. Protesters carrying party flags and banners demonstrated and blocked roads and national highways in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Balasore, Rayagada, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Berhampur and Sambalpur.
Government pushback and a Karnataka FIR
Union minister Bhagirath Choudhary rejected the opposition's case, saying the demonstrations in Delhi against Kumar were driven by frustration. Speaking to reporters at Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi, where he had arrived to inaugurate facilities at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Choudhary said the opposition had run out of issues and was making baseless statements.
Separately in Karnataka, Vijayapura police registered an FIR against MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal over allegations that false death certificates of voters were created to keep them off the voting list in the Vijayapura Assembly constituency. Yatnal was expelled by the BJP in March 2025. Prakash Raj had raised the matter at a rally in Vijayapura a few days earlier.
The Bengaluru tribunal, the Delhi FIRs, the Odisha bandh and the push for a presidential meeting together mark one of the broadest opposition mobilisations since the SIR exercise began. The Congress, meanwhile, is managing an internal balancing act as Rahul Gandhi's campaign profile grows while allied parties seek their own space in the agitation, The Hindu notes.
What to watch next is whether the INDIA bloc's delegation meets President Murmu, whether the promised larger Delhi protest materialises with more MPs, and whether the Bengaluru tribunal produces testimony that shifts the public argument over the SIR process.
