Protesters flooded streets across India for a third straight day on Sunday, part of a nationwide campaign demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations he manipulated voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

The unrest traces back to a report in the Indian Express newspaper revealing that Kumar's own deputies, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had repeatedly questioned him over changes to voter lists — including the registration, deletion and restoration of names — that opposition parties say were engineered to favor the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Tear Gas and a Youth Revolt

Indian police fired tear gas and water cannons at Congress party members during protests in late September, as the opposition accused the commission of manipulating the rolls ahead of state elections. Around the same time, a youth movement calling itself the 'cockroach' party — credited with forcing India's education minister to resign in July — vowed to launch nationwide demonstrations if Kumar did not step down.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has organized the current wave of unrest under a 'Save Democracy March' running from October 2 through October 8, with today marking the third day of sustained street action.

DIFFERENCES AMONG OFFICERS ARE NORMAL IN ANY INSTITUTION — ALL OUR ACTIONS ARE LAWFUL

The Election Commission has pushed back hard, insisting that internal disagreements are routine and that every action it has taken is lawful. The BJP has dismissed the Indian Express report entirely, accusing opposition parties of running a smear campaign because, in the party's telling, they keep losing elections to it.

Neither Kumar nor the two commissioners who raised objections have publicly detailed the specific voter-roll changes at the center of the dispute, and the Election Commission has not released internal records to independent reviewers. The protests, however, show no sign of losing steam heading into the march's final days.