India election chief faces calls to resign from protesters, opposition

Thousands of young protesters and opposition parties staged protests in the national ⁠capital and Mumbai on ⁠Sunday, demanding the resignation of Election Commission Chief ⁠Gyanesh Kumar, as police detained demonstrators for a third consecutive day.

Opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led protests in Mumbai calling for the scrapping of revisions to the electoral roll and Kumar’s resignation.

In Delhi, protesters started gathering in the early evening and police started detaining some of them, ‌according to a witness.

Police did not comment on the number or identities of those detained across the three days. Delhi Police officers have prevented protesters from assembling, detaining dozens and transporting them away by bus over the last two days.

Many demonstrators were later released, though police registered cases against some for allegedly violating orders banning mass gatherings in the capital.

The protesters say a nationwide voter-roll revision exercise launched last year has disenfranchised millions ⁠of eligible voters by removing them from electoral rolls. They allege the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. ‌The Election Commission and the BJP deny the allegations.

“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,” Raj ⁠Thackeray said.

The protests are likely to intensify over the next few days as 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 October ‌10.

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 removal 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.

Rim Jhim Sharma, a ⁠resident of Soniya Vihar in Delhi who came to the protest site, said before being detained that many from her locality have been stripped of their voting rights. “We are here for protest and this ‌is our right. We will take ‌our India back from Modi,” she said.

Kumar has not responded to demands for his resignation or commented on the protests.

The Election Commission says the exercise is designed to remove duplicate, deceased, or ineligible entries and maintain electoral integrity.

On Friday, the commission directed its officials to register eligible voters inadvertently omitted from electoral rolls.