India’s protest movements unite in fresh headache for Modi

Anti-government banners are displayed at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on July 23. | Saumya Khandelwal / The New York Times

Bloomberg

Nov 1, 2026

India’s opposition alliance is taking its weekslong fight over contested voter rolls to the streets, staging a mass rally intended to mount one of the stiffest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his more than a decade in office.

The INDIA bloc is organizing the “Save the Vote, Save the Country” protest on Sunday at New Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, a sprawling ground in the heart of the capital that has hosted some of the nation’s biggest political demonstrations. Rahul Gandhi, who is spearheading the protests and seeking the ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, has urged students, farmers, workers, women and youth to join the gathering. Gandhi’s Indian National Congress is targeting a turnout of 1 million.

“There is huge anger, huge emotional pain, because millions of people are being disenfranchised. Their vote is being stolen from them,” Gandhi, leader of the opposition in the lower house, said ahead of the planned demonstration. “We are defending the vote, which is the expression of all Indians.”

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