The leader of India’s Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), Abhijeet Dipke, says a planned protest in New Delhi will go ahead on Saturday despite the detention of thousands of his supporters, whom he said were demanding the resignation of the country’s chief election commissioner.
The protest centres on a controversial revision of India’s voter lists that removed 130 million voters nationwide, prompting calls by the youth movement, opposition parties and student groups for election chief Gyanesh Kumar to resign.
“I’ll be landing in Delhi tomorrow and will march to Jantar Mantar, come what may,” Dipke said on X on Friday, referring to a designated protest site in the capital.
“The youth of this country are no longer scared of you,” he added in a message addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India, the world’s largest democracy, had at least 960 million eligible voters in 2024. The voter verification exercise began last year ahead of elections in the eastern state of Bihar and has since covered most states.
No Permission for Protest, Police Say
Police in New Delhi said the CJP had not obtained permission for Saturday’s protest and could face legal action if participants violated regulations.
Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel, including officers from sensitive areas such as Indian-administered Kashmir, were being deployed to the capital, according to a government document seen by Reuters.
The CJP said police in several states had detained thousands of its supporters as they travelled to attend the protest. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the claims or videos posted on X.
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The opposition Congress party, led by Rahul Gandhi, has called for a meeting of allies from more than a dozen parties opposed to Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The opposition bloc was scheduled to meet President Droupadi Murmu, whose role is largely constitutional, on Friday evening.
Transport Restrictions Ahead of Protest
Some long-distance trains to New Delhi scheduled for Saturday were cancelled, while authorities said police had requested reduced metro services, with some station exits to be closed over fears of potentially unruly crowds.
Opposition parties and critics say the voter-list revision, the first major exercise of its kind in nearly two decades, amounts to mass disenfranchisement intended to favour the BJP. They have called for the exercise to be scrapped and the previous voter lists restored.
The Election Commission, however, says the figures refer to voter entries flagged during a draft revision and that the exercise is not yet complete. It added that people whose names were wrongly removed could register again.
