India bloc marches to Amravati collectorate, seeks impartial SIR probe and CEC inquiry

Opposition parties grouped under the India bloc took out a large march to the district collector's office in Amravati, demanding an independent inquiry into the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. The organisers said they were protesting irregularities in the exercise, the removal of voters' names from the roll and the manner in which the Election Commission works. A delegation later met the collector and handed over a memorandum of demands.

The procession set off at 12.30 pm from Girls High School Chowk. Office-bearers and workers of the parties that make up the Maha Vikas Aghadi, along with a good number of ordinary citizens, walked together. Marchers shouted slogans against the Election Commission and the government for the whole of the route, and raised the cry "Save democracy, save the Constitution, save voters' rights".

Former minister and advocate Yashomati Thakur headed the agitation. With her at the front were Amravati MP Balwant Wankhade and former minister Sunil Deshmukh. Former MLA Virendra Jagtap, Vilas Ingole and Milind Chimote were also among the leaders, as were the city Congress president, Bablu Shekhawat, and Aniruddha, better known as Bablu Deshmukh, who heads the rural wing of the Amravati District Congress Committee.

Trouble came at the gate of the collectorate, where police tried to hold the marchers back. The protesters were keen to go in, and a short argument followed between them and the police. The crowd then moved into the compound, and the atmosphere stayed tense for a while.

Inside, a delegation of the bloc met the collector in the office auditorium and submitted the memorandum. It asked for an independent and impartial inquiry covering the whole process by which names were struck off during the SIR. It wanted eligible voters restored to the roll without delay, and sought enough time and opportunity for voters to lodge objections. It also called for changes made to the rolls to be disclosed in a transparent manner.

The memorandum went on to seek an impartial inquiry into the allegations made about the working of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with action under law if the inquiry finds him at fault. It asked that the commission's decisions be taken transparently, that its constitutional autonomy be kept intact and that the citizen's right to vote be safeguarded.

The document refers to Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, who, it says, have spoken out against the alleged irregularities in the electoral process. The bloc also condemned the police action during the protest and insisted that the right to demonstrate democratically must be preserved. It urged the government to treat seriously the concerns raised about the SIR, about voters' rights, about the changes to the roll and about the commission's functioning.

Speaking at the protest, Ms Thakur drew on her own experience. "I have been a minister of the state and an MLA, yet a defect was found in my children's voter ID cards. So what will happen to the common man? That is why the real issue is the SIR and vote chori," she said. She went on to allege: "The BJP has built an app and given access to it to tehsildars and others. It is being decided which names are to be deleted." She added that the chief election commissioner had caused irregularities across the country, which she condemned, and called the treatment being given to Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi condemnable.

On October 9, 2026, Ms Thakur also posted on X about the march. She wrote that the India bloc had held a big demonstration in Amravati and met the district collector with its office-bearers, in support of the demand that Gyanesh Kumar, whom she holds responsible for the SIR and what she called vote chori, step down. She stated that it was her demand that he resign immediately.