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After the Ramlila rally, a turnout war: BJP counts empty chairs, Akhilesh calls it 'Haldighati of democracy'
A day after the INDIA bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally, the BJP says 5,000 to 7,000 of 28,000 chairs were empty and 40% of the ground vacant, against a claimed 10 lakh. Akhilesh Yadav called the venue the 'Haldighati of democracy' and Tejashwi Yadav demanded fresh polls in Bihar and Bengal.
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The INDIA bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally in Delhi on Sunday, 1 November, has turned into an argument about how many people showed up. The BJP says large parts of the ground were empty, while the Congress put attendance at 10 lakh. The rally demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and repeated the Opposition's charge of 'vote chori', or vote theft.
BJP MP Sambit Patra said that out of 28,000 chairs at the venue, around 5,000 to 7,000 were empty between 3:30 pm and 4 pm. He also said that 40% of the ground was vacant. The two figures are not the same measure: the chair count works out to roughly a fifth to a quarter, while the 40% figure refers to the space. Union Minister Giriraj Singh said half of the maidan, which has a capacity of about 50,000, was empty. The Congress shared a video it said showed the ground packed.
Patra also noted that Gyanesh Kumar became Chief Election Commissioner in 2025 and was not in the post during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which Rahul Gandhi has questioned. There is no independent crowd count, and both estimates come from the parties involved.
What was said from the stage
Rahul Gandhi said that Kumar will be removed and that without him Narendra Modi would not have become Prime Minister. Tejashwi Yadav called the Bengal and Bihar elections a sham and completely fraudulent, and demanded fresh elections in both states. K.C. Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee were also at the rally.
Akhilesh Yadav called the venue the 'Haldighati of democracy', after the 1576 battle in Rajasthan, and said the turnout signalled a coming change. He said the BJP, which won power at the Centre through Uttar Pradesh, would be removed from the state, and that the movement to save democracy would begin there. He alleged that the West Bengal Assembly election had been looted and that votes were manipulated through the revision of rolls, and said: 'We, in the INDIA alliance, will not stop.' These remain his allegations and were not verified.
On Saturday, 21 INDIA bloc parties led by the Congress held a mock parliament that 'impeached' Kumar and adopted a six-point resolution accusing him of electoral manipulation, large-scale voter deletions and compromising the Election Commission's independence. The Commission has not responded publicly to the demand for his removal in the reports reviewed.
Home Minister Amit Shah replied that Rahul Gandhi had been losing for 15 years and should 'stay in a mock parliament' for life. The BJP has said the Opposition is conspiring to destabilise the government.
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