Published Oct 03, 2026 | 9:43 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 03, 2026 | 9:43 PM
Actor Prakash Raj addressing the gathering at Dharna Chowk
Synopsis: Citizens gathered at Hyderabad’s Dharna Chowk, outside Indira Park, on Saturday, with three major demands: scrapping the SIR, the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and the repeal of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act. Several speakers criticised the CEC and the Union government, calling the ongoing SIR process a breach of citizens’ rights.
Citizens in Hyderabad gathered at Dharna Chowk on Saturday, 3 October, for a day-long protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Organisers described it as Telangana’s entry into a growing national campaign against the exercise. They said the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Union government were using SIR to push lakhs of genuine voters off the rolls.
More than a dozen groups co-organised the event, including Telangana People’s Front, Telangana Voter Rights Forum, National Alliance of People’s Movements, All India People’s Movement, Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Cockroach Janta Party, Student Islamic Organisation, Youth Welfare Telangana, and more.
Prominent activists, academics, and social workers attended the event, many of whom have been working on the ground to help people navigate the SIR process from the enumeration period to the ongoing claims and objections stage in Telangana. The venue was filled with placards and banners calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down.
Related: Dissolve LS, Assemblies, demands Mallikarjun Kharge
The protest centred on three major demands, starting with scrapping the SIR and upholding every citizen’s right to vote. The second demand was the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and legal action for breaching public trust. The third was to repeal the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which concentrates executive control over appointments and erodes transparency and accountability in elections, the organisers said.
A protester’s poster against SIR
Addressing the demonstration, actor Prakash Raj called the SIR procedure an attempt to kill democracy and urged scrapping the process.
“BJP is trying to break the country into two groups: people with the right to franchise, and people who can’t vote. Who are they removing? They are removing Adivasis. They are removing minorities. They are removing Dalits. They are removing anyone who doesn’t vote for them,” he said.
The national award-winning actor said the Supreme Court was also answerable to the people for letting the process continue despite flagging several irregularities during the SIR process in Bihar and West Bengal.
“There is an attempt to kill democracy. There is an attempt to take back the freedom which our forefathers fought for. This is the people’s second freedom struggle. Don’t let them deviate. No corrections. Scrap the SIR,” Raj Said.
University of Hyderabad retired Professor and activist Haragopal said that it was important to view the current developments from an ideological standpoint.
“The ideology of the ones ruling our country is such that at the time of Independence itself, they rejected the constitution. They rejected democracy. They want to impose Manusmriti on us forcibly. They believe that democracy, elections, and the constitution are all Western constructs. They reiterated it as recently as eight years ago at an RSS meeting in Goa. That’s why we have to understand the ongoing SIR process as being part of an ideological exercise,” he said.
Referring to the student movements since the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak, Prof Haragopal praised the young protestors across the country for reviving democratic values. He said Gen Z Indians have brought hope at a time when it felt impossible to organise for a people’s movement.
Cybersecurity activist Srinivas Kodali said that information technology’s role in the SIR must not be ignored. Pointing to reports that Hyderabad was one of the most surveilled cities in the world, he said the current revision of electoral rolls was a similar attempt at snatching away more rights from the people.
Also among the attendees were academics K Nageshwar, C Kasim, Padmaja Shaw, Kancha Ilaiah; activists Mary Dias, Khalida Parveen, Meera Sanghamitra, Irfan Khan, and retired IAS officer Akununri Murali.
Related: Telangana Congress shares more pre-printed Form 7s
The crowd was a mix of people from all age groups, though far fewer than during the NEET protests. Prakash, a 79-year-old retiree, told South First that he did not believe Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation was enough and called the SIR procedure heavily flawed.
A poster against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, influenced by artist Sanitary Panels
“What is happening now is you have transferred the onus of proof to the people. Can’t you take inclusion in 2002 as enough for the process? If I say I’m a citizen of India, and the Constitution or the law does not disqualify me. I must be eligible to vote. They cannot remove a person from a list. If a person was not at home when the process was being conducted, how does it prove anything about citizenship? The ECI has to show proof of non-citizenship; the ECI has to prove it before asking us,” said Prakash.
Mehnoor, a 21-year-old student from English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), said it was important to be present at the protest because she felt like it was high time.
“The state that our country is in right now is going towards a fascist regime. Everything is connected — the student protests, the SIR. These are not loose threads. We might eventually go into a dictatorship. That’s why I’m here today,” she told South First.
Speaking to South First, Cockroach Janta Party’s spokesperson Raviesha Pradeep said, “If you see the policies of the Election Commission of India, and what Gyanesh Kumar has done, there’s been an absolute death of democracy in this country. There’s been an absolute death of the rights of people in this country. A citizen’s right to vote is their strongest right in a democratic country. That’s the only time a citizen can express what they truly feel about the government, be it hate, love, or whatever it is. That is the only time the government can truly understand what the public needs, and if that kind of a system is now being questioned, it is an absolute breach of democracy that they have done.”
Addressing the lower turnout, Pradeep said CJP was planning to organise protests across the country and officially expand its outreach. Still, she added that the priority was to route all the protests towards Jantar Mantar by 10 October. She also cited rigid permission conditions and restrictions in Hyderabad as reasons it became difficult to organise large-scale demonstrations.
The protest took place under heavy police presence, with officers storming the tent around 3 pm and urging people to disperse.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
