The bygone week saw the return of street protests to Delhi and Mumbai, political and financial nerve centres of India, as the row involving alleged irregularities in the working of the Election Commission of India escalated.While the ruling BJP strategised in private on ways to manage the crisis, youth-led Cockroach Janta Party, Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc and Left-linked outfits hit the ground through separate agitations, culminating in the common demand of the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.Notwithstanding the massive citizen and opposition-led offensives this time, the ruling dispensation, insiders say, is clear about one thing: There will be no going back on the stated position that the EC-led Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, at the heart of the controversy, is “key to national security and the purity of electoral roll.The EC too, after reports suggested friction among election commissioners over nuances of SIR, described the exercise as a unanimous full commission decision later upheld by the Supreme Court and one that was about weeding out the deceased, duplicate and ineligible voters.But critics of the regime and pro-democracy voices are determined to escalate matters this time.The Congress-led INDIA alliance is already drafting a parliamentary petition to remove the CEC, has sought the immediate cancellation of SIR, resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and restoration of 13 crore people whom SIR struck off the rolls. The opposition has also vowed to build up a public campaign on the issue.The CJP, for its part, upbeat after securing the critical resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, has said Gyanesh Kumar should go or the government should prepare for Jantar Mantar 2.0 on October 10.For the first time on Jattvibeday, a judge of the apex court, Ujjal Bhuyan, termed as intrinsically arbitrary any process that disenfranchises millions of citizens.As the challengers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi deploy new political idioms to transform the instant row into a mass political issue, the BJP, backed by NDA partners TDP, Shiv Sena, LJP and JDU, believes the crisis will blow over, as it has in the past.To drive home their point, saffron sources point to the past controversies such as the Rafale fighter jet deal, Pegasus spyware, Citizenship Amendment Act and Abrogation of Article 370 in J&K issues.“In each of these issues, a political and legal challenge was mounted against the government. Everyone knows what happened,” says a BJP leader, adding that the Congress habitually resorts to institution shaming every time the voters reject it.A section of leaders in the Congress meanwhile feel while it’s important to question the disenfranchisement of voters, as Rahul Gandhi is doing, more has to be done to make the opposition claims look credible.“You lose the moral authority to question the EC and the poll process the moment you accept the verdict where the Congress or the opposition parties win and denounce it where they lose. Maybe the Congress and wider opposition should consider boycotting the elections completely to mount real pressure on the voting systems,” said a former veteran Congress leader.This is precisely what the BJP is asking. Former education minister and BJP general secretary Smriti Irani was the first to question the Congress whether it would reject the mandates in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana and states where the BJP was not in power and the opposition was.Sangh Parivar’s mouthpiece Organiser this week described attacks against the EC and agitations over student suicides as the latest attempts by the “Communist-Islamist ecosystem” to discredit Indian institutions.“Fueling protests, invoking caste sentiments, creating alienation towards the government and discrediting institutions is the new modus operandi of the Communist-Islamist cabal….Anti-Bharat forces from outside are funding these agitations and some opposition parties are falling prey to the game for short-term political ends,” the Organiser editorial said on Saturday.As the war of narratives explodes, it remains to be seen how far the Opposition and citizen-led movements are able to sustain the momentum against the EC.This at a time when the BJP-RSS social media and grassroots outreach has begun circulating materials suggesting that Gyanesh Kumar is being targeted for a reason.“The government abrogated Article 370 and made Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India. Who drafted the rules and bylaws for this process? Ram Janmabhoomi temple became a reality because of the PM Modi-led government. Who constituted Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and framed its regulations? Which official prepared the government’s stance on the Rafale controversy? The answer is Gyanesh Kumar,” says one of the messages being amplified by right-wing handles to counter the CJP’s and Opposition’s anti-CEC campaign across online spaces..