The emptiest metro
10 October 2026, a Delhi Metro platform with almost nobody on it.
On 10 October I was travelling from Delhi to Gurugram, and the metro was empty. Not quiet, not off-peak: empty. A platform that is normally shoulder to shoulder had one person sitting on a bench and a whole hall of polished floor stretching away from me. It was the first time I had seen a metro station in Delhi this empty.
Why it was empty
That day the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led group, held a protest at Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. According to news reports, its organisers demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls.
Before the protest, Delhi Police asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to close the entry and exit gates at 57 stations, citing the risk of crowds moving towards sensitive locations. DMRC cut the list to 45 stations. The gates were due to reopen at 6 pm on 10 October, and the closure was then extended to 10 pm. DMRC later posted that the gates at all stations were open again.
The closed stations included Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Patel Chowk, Janpath, Mandi House, New Delhi and Hauz Khas.
What it looked like
The photograph is one platform. A steel pillar with the line map wrapped around it, a long hall of pale floor with pink and green stripes, glass platform doors all closed, and a single passenger sitting by the pillar. Nothing else is moving.
This is a record of a day when a city that is never quiet went quiet, written down with what the news said about why. The details of the closures come from reports by The Daily Jagran and Republic, from 9 and 10 October 2026.