Police arrested more than 2,000 demonstrators, including the founder of the “Cockroaches” youth movement, in New Delhi, on Saturday, while security forces imposed lockdown measures in parts of the capital to thwart a demonstration demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner of India.
Thousands of police and paramilitary forces were deployed across the city, suspending mobile Internet services in the central business district and closing dozens of metro stations and markets, as part of the authorities’ move to prevent the gathering planned by the “Cockroach” movement.
The protest targets Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the amendment of voter lists, which critics say disproportionately favors the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The movement was planning to mobilize thousands at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in central Delhi, but security forces closed the area before the demonstration began.
An official in the Ministry of Interior, who requested to remain anonymous, told Reuters that more than 2,000 people were detained in Delhi. Local media reported that about 400 demonstrators were detained in Mumbai, India's financial center.
The police have not yet commented on the detentions.
Small protests erupted elsewhere in Delhi, including a popular handicraft market and a memorial to independence movement leader Mahatma Gandhi, and demonstrators chanted slogans demanding Kumar's resignation.
A witness from Reuters reported that some young demonstrators in central Delhi chanted “Long live the revolution,” while police pursued protesters and pushed dozens of others onto buses to take them away, while others continued to arrive.
“This is a violation of the people’s rights, and the country will not tolerate this anymore,” Yogendra Solanki told Reuters as police led him away.
The Kokrukh Janata Party said in a statement that the police also detained the party's founder, Abhijit Debki, and prominent leaders Sourav Das and Ashutosh Ranka upon the arrival of their flight from Mumbai to Delhi.
Television footage showed Debaki challenging the police officers who approached him on the plane.
He said: “I came to be arrested. Arrest me... I am not afraid of you.”
One of them responded, saying: “No, this is not an arrest.” Please cooperate.”
The Kokrukh Janata Party denounced what it described as the “tyrannical detention” of its leaders, demanded their immediate release, and said that the protest would continue despite this.
A party leader, Ajinkya Shinde, told reporters: “We will continue our protest tomorrow and the day after... until Gyanesh Kumar resigns.” "We will stay in the streets."
The party also stated that the authorities refrained from providing any information about the whereabouts of the leaders or their health condition, even after reports emerged of the death of Debaki's grandmother. Police said they informed Debke of his grandmother's death and offered him help returning home for the funeral.
Television channels also showed the detention of some opposition MPs and former state prime ministers: Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi and Pinarayi Vijayan from Kerala.
Representatives of two digital media organizations said that police briefly detained four of their reporters while covering the protest. A journalist from Reuters was also detained briefly before being released.
Throughout the sprawling capital, which has a population of about 20 million people, security forces set up checkpoints on the main roads and entrances to the city. Police officers boarded the buses searching for the protesters, while the vehicles were searched. Traffic was stopped with barriers and concrete blocks, while riot control vehicles equipped with tear gas cannons were stationed on main roads.
The demonstrations represent one of the most serious tests Modi has faced yet; It stems from accusations that election authorities improperly modified voter lists ahead of the recent state elections.
The protests have gained momentum since last week, when the Indian Express newspaper reported that two election commissioners questioned Kumar and disagreed with him over amendments that led to the removal of about 130 million names from voter lists.
Kumar did not comment on the matter, but the Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party denied any wrongdoing.
The Bharatiya Janata Party says its electoral success reflects Modi's popularity and economic growth in India, and that opposition parties are spreading misleading information.
However, the near-daily protests pose a new challenge for Modi, just a few months after similar protests forced the education minister to resign over leaked exam questions.
The protests also come months before a series of important state elections starting in early 2027.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party, said Modi's opponents would not back down.
For his part, Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said that the party does not oppose the demonstrations per se, but pointed out that the opponents exploited the popular protests as a political “weapon” due to their electoral defeats.
Opposition parties say that deleting voters' names affected the results of some state elections that the Bharatiya Janata Party recently won, and cast a shadow over the elections in the largest democracy in the world.
Election Commission data show that about 130 million electoral records were removed from voter lists during the verification process, including 63 million people who moved to other places, 30 million who could not be found, and 28 million who were deceased.
The Electoral Commission says the deletion is related to restrictions identified during the initial review process, and that any eligible voter whose name was mistakenly deleted can register again.
