Protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party and student groups demand the resignation of India's election chief over alleged voter-roll manipulation favoring the ruling BJP. Demonstrations in Delhi and Mumbai highlight growing scrutiny of the Election Commission, with calls for accountability and restoration of voting rights.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced renewed pressure on Friday as the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and a separate coalition of student and civil society groups staged fresh protests, demanding the resignation of the election commission chief over a controversial voter-roll revision.
The CJP planned a rally in Mumbai and said it would expand demonstrations nationwide in the coming days, while student and civil society groups gathered at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar.
A few dozen protesters gathered at the Delhi site on Friday morning, but police bundled some into buses and took them away. Several nearby metro stations remained closed and security was tightened.
Officers repeatedly warned over loudspeakers against gatherings of more than five people as hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel surrounded the barricaded protest site.
As police pushed him onto a bus, protester Rishabh Singh said: “The right to protest is our fundamental right, and we want answers from the government on vote theft.”
In Mumbai, protesters were expected to gather in the afternoon, with hundreds of police assembling around the site.
The protests mark the latest escalation in a dispute that has brought unprecedented scrutiny to India's Election Commission, long regarded as one of the country's key electoral institutions.
Protesters allege that the commission manipulated voter rolls in ways that favour Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The commission and the government have denied the allegations.
Pressure on Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar intensified last month after The Indian Express reported that his two deputies had formally raised concerns at least 14 times over the previous 10 months about voter-list revisions, registration procedures and the commission's digital systems.
The Election Commission has said differing views are normal during internal deliberations.
“We have been asking and demanding for a change, but nothing of that is going to happen if our only tool that is left to change anything in our society, the right to vote, is taken away from us,” Saurav Das, CJP's convenor, told Indian news agency ANI on Thursday.
“We will only end the protest after Gyanesh Kumar resigns.”
The controversy centres on a nationwide voter-verification exercise launched last year that critics say has resulted in millions of eligible voters being removed from electoral rolls.
The commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased or otherwise ineligible voters.
On Friday, the poll body directed officials to register newly eligible voters and those omitted from electoral rolls, the latest indication that it was easing its stance.
Opposition parties led by the Congress party are also set to begin protests demanding Kumar's resignation on October 6.
The CJP, a youth movement that emerged earlier this year from online frustration over unemployment and leaked examination papers, has become an unexpected political force.
Led by Abhijeet Dipke, the party gained national prominence after spearheading mass protests over exam-paper leaks that led to the resignation of India's education minister, one of Modi's significant political setbacks in recent years.
“People are being stripped of their voting rights,” said June Moniroy, a protester in Delhi who said she had been excluded from the voter list.
“Gyanesh Kumar must resign.”