A rally being held in Hyderabad on Saturday, demanding the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G
Chants of “Gyanesh Kumar Istifa Do” (Gyanesh Kumar should resign) and “SIR Nu Raddhu Cheyali” (Scrap SIR) rang out on the streets of Hyderabad on Saturday, October 10, as around 120 protesters took out a 2-km rally demanding the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Beginning at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, the rally moved towards Ashok Nagar, with protesters stopping at locations frequented by students to draw attention to what they described as growing concerns over voter deletions. As the demonstration progressed, more people joined the march, raising slogans and singing songs of resistance.
For the protesters, the central question was whether an exercise intended to update electoral rolls was instead leading to eligible voters being excluded. “The whole purpose of SIR is to ensure that the number of voters increases and that people who have been left out are added to the electoral rolls. However, what we have been seeing since the Bihar elections, and also in Telangana currently, is that SIR has become a tool to delete voters,” said Neeraj, a student.
Ankit, an IT employee who participated in the rally, questioned the government’s justification that SIR would help identify illegal immigrants who had allegedly obtained voter identity cards. “If that is the case, we ask the government to provide us with data on how many such voter names have been deleted and how many actual Indian citizens have been removed from the electoral rolls,” he said.
The first halt was near Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, where protesters raised slogans and sang songs of resistance. The march then proceeded to the City Central Library in Chikkadpally, where the protesters continued their demonstration. Former chairperson of the Telangana Education Commission, Akunuri Murali, joined the rally there and expressed concern over the impact of large-scale voter deletions. “The huge deletion of votes is a threat to democracy,” he said.
For Loraine, a student, the protest was also a demand for greater transparency and accountability from those in power. “It’s about time we demanded transparency from the government. They should understand that they cannot get away with anything now. If you don’t take accountability, people will come out on the streets asking you to take accountability,” she said.
The rally concluded at Ashok Nagar, with the organisers promising to continue holding protests across Hyderabad.
Published – October 10, 2026 09:14 pm IST
