On September 25, members of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, led by state unit chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, organized a protest in Sector 17 of Chandigarh. The demonstrators demanded the dismissal and arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and attempted to gherao the Election Commission office.
Police responded with water cannon and erected barricades. When the Congress activists tried to breach the barriers and move toward the state election commission building, officers stopped them. Several Congress leaders and workers were subsequently detained.
During the protest, Warring and other leaders raised the slogan ‘stop vote chori’ and accused the electoral process of being rigged, claiming that citizens’ right to vote was being taken away. Senior Congress figures such as Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Pargat Singh, Balbir Singh Sidhu and Rana Kaypee joined the demonstration and called for the CEC’s immediate dismissal and arrest.
The demands echo comments made by Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, who said that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have supported his long‑standing claim that the country’s electoral system is ‘destroyed.’ This assertion follows a report by Indian Express that the commissioners had flagged issues with the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
