Protests Intensify in India Over Demands for Election Chief to Resign

AFP

Protesters carry India’s national flag during a demonstration calling for the resignation the country’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Thousands of young protesters and opposition supporters rallied in Delhi and Mumbai on Sunday, calling for the resignation of India’s election commission chief over changes to voter rolls, as police detained some demonstrators for a third consecutive day.

Opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led protests in Mumbai, calling for the revisions to be scrapped and for Election Commission Chief Gyanesh Kumar to step down.

The protesters say the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge denied by the Election Commission and the BJP.

Police in the capital have prevented protesters from assembling over the last two days, detaining dozens of them and transporting them away by bus.

Some of the detainees were released later on Friday and Saturday, but police registered cases against some on charges of violating orders banning mass gatherings in the centre of the capital.

The protesters say the nationwide voter-roll revision exercise launched last year has disenfranchised ‌millions ⁠of eligible voters by removing them from electoral rolls in a way that will benefit Modi's party.

"I just want to tell the ruling party this much... We are angry about how you are wielding that power. It's the people of this country who should decide who sits in power and who sits in opposition, not the Election Commission," the opposition leader Raj Thackeray said.

The Election Commission says the exercise is designed to remove duplicate, deceased, or ⁠ineligible entries and maintain electoral integrity. On Friday, it directed its officials to register eligible voters inadvertently omitted from electoral rolls.

An alliance ⁠of India's opposition parties plans to launch protests to "save democracy" with a march to the Election Commission office on Monday. The Gen Z Cockroach Janta Party has announced plans for a major rally in Delhi on 10 October.

The demonstrations represent the latest in a series ⁠of youth-led challenges to Modi's government — unprecedented in his 12 years in power.

In July, student protests forced the ouster of the federal education minister following a leak of question papers for a national medical college entrance examination, marking the worst political crisis of Modi's third term in office.

Source: Reuters



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