Prakash Raj calls Bengaluru to Freedom Park against SIR

Prakash Raj is asking Bengaluru to turn up in large numbers on Thursday, October 8, for a state-level “People’s Tribunal” against Karnataka’s Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of electoral rolls. The gathering at Freedom Park is being positioned as a direct challenge to how the state has been cleaning up its voter list.

What the tribunal is for

The actor described the SIR exercise as an attempt to “kill democracy and the constitution” and posted the call on X. The protest is being organised with civil society groups and the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, including its founder Abhijeet Dipke and spokesperson Saurav Das.

According to Prakash Raj, people who say they were removed from the rolls will present hard evidence of their experiences at the tribunal. He has asked youth organisations and the public to be present from Thursday morning, and he frames the moment as bigger than any single vote.

Why the SIR has turned into a flashpoint

The Special Intensive Revision was pitched as a cleanup of Karnataka’s voter rolls. But opposition figures, civil society groups and activists say it has led to widespread and arbitrary deletions, especially in Bengaluru’s urban constituencies. Their charge is that genuine voters are losing their names, often without easy recourse, while the exercise is presented as routine list sanitisation.

That is why the People’s Tribunal is gathering testimony in public. The organisers want to document the human cost and push electoral authorities for corrective action ahead of the upcoming poll.

• When: Thursday, October 8, from the morning
• Where: Freedom Park, Bengaluru
• Why: Hear evidence from voters who say SIR removed them
• What else: Prakash Raj promises a surprise guest by evening

How to take part

If you are in Bengaluru, the call is simple: be at Freedom Park from the morning and add your voice to the demonstration. Those outside the city can follow Prakash Raj’s feed; he has said he will announce the surprise guest by Thursday evening, calling that guest “a voice with a spine.”

The actor’s screen and street presence

Prakash Raj has made a career of being a commanding presence, both on screen and in public. He was recently seen as Public Prosecutor Indrajith Shetty in Drishyam: The Conclusion, which released on October 2, 2026, and he had a role in Jana Nayagan, the 2026 film fronted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay. His Bengaluru call, though, is less filmi and more civic: a star using his reach to rally people around an electoral cause he says affects every voter.

For Hindi film fans outside Karnataka, the protest is a reminder that the star’s activism often runs parallel to his filmography. The SIR fight may be local, but the question — who gets to stay on the voters’ list — lands far beyond Bengaluru.

Source: India Today