India's CJP protest movement says members detained ahead of Saturday rally

India's Cockroach Janata Party movement says authorities have detained many of its supporters as protests continue over disputed voter-roll revisions and demands for the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The latest detentions were reported on Thursday, ahead of a planned mass demonstration on Saturday at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the capital's designated protest site. The movement says thousands of supporters from student groups, grassroots organisations and allied political parties remain involved in the campaign.

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According to a spokesperson for the movement, at least 10,000 people from CJP demonstrations and affiliated groups have been detained across the country. The movement also said its national spokesman, Deepak Baliyan, was taken into police custody on Thursday. It further said a group of students from Pune who were travelling to New Delhi for the planned protest were taken away in a bus to an unknown location.

Videos posted online appeared to show activists being taken away in vans, although the claims have not been independently verified. The protests are centred on allegations that the Election Commission's revision of voter lists has unfairly affected opposition supporters. The commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries while keeping eligible voters registered, and the government denies any political motive.

The dispute has already removed more than 130 million names from voter lists, with millions of people appealing the removals, and it has become a wider test of confidence in India's electoral administration. The issue matters because the election commission is one of the country's key democratic institutions, and the scale of the revision is unusually large. About 969 million people were eligible to vote in India's 2024 election, so even limited changes to the rolls can have significant political consequences.

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Opposition parties and student groups say the process could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, an accusation both the commission and the party reject. The current protests build on earlier demonstrations in Delhi and Mumbai, where opposition figures and student-led groups have pressed for a public response from the election chief. Police have repeatedly intercepted marches and detained protesters as they tried to reach central locations in the capital.

The movement's founder, Abhijeet Dipke, has accused the authorities of acting as though an emergency has been declared, reflecting the intensity of the confrontation. What remains unclear is how many people were detained in Thursday's operation and whether Saturday's rally at Jantar Mantar will go ahead as planned. It is also not yet clear whether Gyanesh Kumar or the Election Commission will respond directly to the renewed calls for resignation.

For now, the dispute remains focused on voter rolls, protest policing and the authority of India's election system.

Rahul Gandhi was detained again in New Delhi on Wednesday, marking the third time in two days that the opposition leader has been taken into custody during protests over India's voter-list revision. Police apprehended Gandhi and other opposition lawmakers as they marched towards Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in the capital. A live feed from his party showed officers placing him in a vehicle and driving away.

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The protest is focused on demands for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom opposition parties accuse of overseeing a revision that has removed more than 130 million names from voter lists. The Election Commission and the government deny any political motive, saying the exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries while keeping eligible voters registered. Gandhi said the group had intended to reach the protest site and accuse the commission chief of lacking legitimacy.

Authorities also detained several other opposition lawmakers and protesters, although police did not immediately comment on the latest detentions. The confrontation has become a significant political challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi midway through his third term, as it brings together opposition parties, student groups and youth activists around allegations of voter suppression. The dispute has also intensified scrutiny of how police are handling demonstrations in the capital.

The row matters because it goes to the credibility of electoral administration in India, where the election commission is a central institution in the democratic process. Opposition parties say the revision has disproportionately affected voters who support them, while the commission says it is correcting duplicate, deceased or otherwise ineligible entries. About 969 million people were eligible to vote in India's 2024 election, underlining the scale of any change to the rolls.

The latest detentions follow protests on Tuesday, when police broke up a gathering and briefly detained lawmakers before releasing some of them. The dispute has already spread beyond a single march, with opposition groups continuing to press for a public response from the election chief. It has also raised questions about how far the authorities will go to restrict demonstrations near key government institutions in New Delhi.

What remains unclear is whether the opposition will continue its march in the same form and whether the election commission or Gyanesh Kumar will respond directly to the renewed calls for resignation. It is also not yet clear how many people were detained in Wednesday's operation or whether further protests will be allowed to reach Jantar Mantar. For now, the confrontation remains centred on voter rolls, protest policing and the authority of one of India's key democratic institutions.

Police in Delhi detained several opposition lawmakers on Tuesday as they marched towards the Election Commission headquarters demanding the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Among those stopped were Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi, who were later released and resumed the protest. The lawmakers then began a sit-in near the commission's offices, marking a fresh escalation in the dispute over voter-roll revisions.

Officials said security teams blocked roads from parliament to the Election Commission building and intercepted protesters at multiple points. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjeet Sheoran said officers picked up demonstrators in buses and took them to different police stations after some tried to use other routes. The police did not say how many lawmakers had been detained, while the opposition said 237 MPs from several parties took part in the march.

The protest is centred on the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which began in Bihar in June 2025 before being expanded nationwide. The commission says the exercise is meant to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, and it says more than 130 million names have so far been removed from draft voter lists. Opposition parties and activists allege that eligible voters have been wrongly excluded and say the process could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, an accusation both the commission and the party reject.

The latest detentions add to a widening political confrontation over the credibility of voter registration in India, where the election authority is a central institution in the democratic process. The dispute has already drawn in multiple opposition parties and followed earlier demonstrations in Delhi and Mumbai, including protests organised by a Gen Z-backed satirical movement that has called for further rallies. It has also increased scrutiny of how the commission is managing the revision and how police are handling public gatherings around the capital.

What remains unclear is how many people were detained in Tuesday's operation and whether the opposition will continue its march in the same form. It is also not yet clear whether the Election Commission or Gyanesh Kumar will respond directly to the renewed calls for resignation. For now, the row remains focused on voter rolls, protest policing and the authority of one of India's key democratic institutions.

Thousands of protesters continued to gather in New Delhi and Mumbai on Sunday for a third day of demonstrations over disputed voter-roll revisions, keeping pressure on India's election authorities. The rallies were organised around demands for the resignation of Election Commission of India chief Gyanesh Kumar. Protesters say the revisions have removed millions of eligible voters from the rolls, an allegation the commission and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party deny.

In Mumbai, thousands marched under the leadership of opposition figures Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray, waving Indian flags and calling for Kumar to step down. In New Delhi, people began assembling in the early evening, but police again moved to stop crowds from forming in the centre of the capital. According to reports from the scene, some protesters were detained as they arrived, while police also registered cases against some people for violating orders banning mass gatherings.

The Election Commission says the voter-roll exercise is meant to remove duplicate, deceased or otherwise ineligible entries and to protect electoral integrity. It has also directed officials to restore eligible voters who were inadvertently left off the lists. Kumar has not publicly responded to the resignation demands, and the protests appear likely to continue, with more rallies planned in the coming days.

The dispute has become politically significant because it touches on the credibility of voter registration in India, where the election commission is a central institution in the democratic process. Allegations that eligible voters have been removed have sharpened opposition claims that the exercise could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party. That has turned what began as an administrative revision into a wider confrontation over trust in election management.

The mobilisation has also drawn in broader opposition coordination. An alliance of opposition parties plans to launch protests to "save democracy" with a march to the election commission office on Tuesday. The row has added scrutiny to the commission's internal handling of the revision, after reports that some election commissioners had objected to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge.

What remains unclear is whether the police will widen their response, whether the commission will issue a fuller public defence of the revision, and how many more people may join the planned protests. It is also not yet clear whether the opposition's planned march will proceed without further detentions or legal action. For now, the dispute remains focused on voter lists, protest policing and the authority of one of India's key democratic institutions.

Thousands of people continued protesting in Delhi and Mumbai on Sunday over large-scale changes to voter rolls, extending a dispute that has already drawn in opposition figures and student activists. The demonstrations were linked to demands for the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. They also came after three female journalists accused police officers of sexual harassment during the street protests in the capital.

Delhi Police said its New Delhi District had received the complaint and transferred it to the crime branch for what it described as a fair and impartial inquiry. The allegations included inappropriate touching, while videos circulating online showed protesters being physically dragged away from the Jantar Mantar protest site in central Delhi. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said women feared for their safety and said the home ministry must answer for the allegations.

The Election Commission says the voter-roll exercise is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible entries, and it says 130 million names have so far been struck off the voters' list. Protesters argue the revision will benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, turning an administrative exercise into a wider political confrontation. The unrest has also highlighted tensions around policing of demonstrations, after scores of young people were detained on Saturday during calls for the election chief to step down.

The dispute matters because it goes to the heart of voter registration and confidence in election administration in India, the world's largest democracy. The Election Commission is a central institution in the political system, and allegations that eligible voters are being removed can quickly become a broader test of trust in democratic oversight. The protests have also shown how quickly concerns about electoral procedure can merge with claims about civil liberties and police conduct.

The current mobilisation has been driven in part by the Cockroach Janta Party, a youth-led pressure group that has previously forced a minister to resign after weeks of protests. The group called for the latest demonstrations after reporting suggested that two other election commissioners had formally objected to decisions and orders they said were issued without their knowledge. That has added to scrutiny of the commission's internal functioning and the way the revision has been handled.

What remains unclear is how the police complaint will be handled and whether any officers will face disciplinary action. It is also not yet known whether the protests will spread further or whether the Election Commission will make any new public response to the allegations and demands. For now, the dispute continues to combine questions over electoral administration, protest policing and the credibility of one of India's key democratic institutions.

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