Anti-CEC protest in Bengaluru: AISA students detained at Freedom Park before march
AISA protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru sees 50+ students detained before a planned march against SIR and CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
The protesters were planning to march to the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, located a few hundred metres from Freedom Park, but were detained by Bengaluru Police even before they could begin their peaceful protest.
Updated - October 10, 2026 03:16 pm IST - Bengaluru:
AISA students said that the police took the protesters away in different buses and they were unable to ascertain whether the detained protesters had been taken to different locations or were all being held at the same police station. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
At least 50 students from the All India Students’ Association (AISA), who were protesting against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, were detained by the Bengaluru city police on Saturday (October 10, 2026). The students said they were protesting peacefully at Freedom Park, the designated protest site, when the police detained them.
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The protesters were planning to march to the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, located a few hundred metres from Freedom Park, demanding the CEC’s resignation and that all deletions from the electoral rolls, including the 1.07 crore names reported as absent, shifted or dead at the draft stage, be scrapped.
However, the students said that the police detained them before they could begin the march, while they were still within the premises of Freedom Park. The protesters said “barricades had been put up at both ends of the protest site, and they had not crossed the barricades or moved towards the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer’s office when the police suddenly detained them and took them away in buses.”
At least 50 students from the All India Students' Association, who were protesting against the SIR and demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, were detained by the #Bengaluru police at Freedom Park on October 10, 2026. 📹Special arrangement https://t.co/2mt73xZt18 https://t.co/kdUIjY6EiC— The Hindu-Bengaluru (@THBengaluru) October 10, 2026
Protesters taken away in different buses
Other students from AISA told The Hindu that the police took the protesters away in different buses and that they were trying to contact them to find out where they had been taken. They said they were unable to ascertain whether the detained protesters had been taken to different locations or were all being held at the same police station.
“Some protesters were at a police station, while others were trying to establish contact with those detained. We will stage another agitation at the police station itself if the detained students are not released,” AISA members said.
AISA has questioned the Congress-led Karnataka government’s handling of the protest, asking how it differed from the BJP when it came to restricting dissent. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Suppression of ‘right to protest’
AISA Karnataka and other Left student organisations condemned the detentions, pointing that the police were suppressing the democratic right to protest. The students association said hundreds of police personnel had been deployed and roads barricaded on both sides to prevent protesters from reaching the Karnataka CEO’s office.
AISA also questioned the Congress-led Karnataka government’s handling of the protest, asking how it differed from the BJP when it came to restricting dissent. It pointed out that the Congress, too, had been opposing the SIR at a national level and demanded that it be scrapped, and questioned why the right to protest was defended at places where a party was in opposition but restricted when it was in power.
Published - October 10, 2026 03:06 pm IST
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