NEW DELHI(National Times)- Indian police detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and several lawmakers for the third time in two days on Wednesday as they launched an unannounced protest demanding the resignation of the election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition parties, their student units, and the \u201ccockroach\u201d youth movement have been staging almost daily demonstrations seeking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar\u2019s resignation, after the Indian Express newspaper last month reported disagreements within the poll panel over updating voter lists, stoking concerns over its neutrality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition lawmakers led by Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi protested on Tuesday as well, seeking a meeting with Kumar and his deputies, before police broke up their gathering and briefly detained them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wednesday\u2019s protest began after a lunch meeting of lawmakers that Congress organised at a restaurant in central Delhi, close to the Jantar Mantar site where authorities permit demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYesterday \u2026 Delhi Police stopped us and said you cannot protest here \u2026 so today \u2026 we will go to the designated protest site, sit there, and tell the country that, for us, Gyanesh Kumar is not the legitimate commissioner,\u201d Gandhi told reporters, referring to Jantar Mantar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe people who have done this (vote theft) are traitors \u2026 Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign,\u201d he said, before boarding a bus that was to take the lawmakers to Jantar Mantar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New political challenge to Modi
Lawmakers in the bus held posters against the windows that said, \u201cno vote theft, no democracy theft\u201d, and \u201celection commission, not BJP commission\u201d, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hundreds of Congress members accompanied the bus on foot amid heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel in riot gear. Police also closed the road leading to Jantar Mantar, forcing the bus to take a detour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gandhi later stepped out of the bus, with a live feed on his party\u2019s YouTube channel showing him standing at the centre of a crowd of protesters and security personnel, while his sister Priyanka Vadra and other lawmakers sprawled out on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi (centre, L) scuffles with a policeman during a protest by the opposition alliance INDIA bloc in New Delhi on October 7, 2026 against the country\u2019s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, calling for his resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. \u2014 AFP
Visuals showed security personnel hauling Gandhi and Vadra into separate vehicles and taking them away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no immediate comment from the police on the detentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The demonstrations present a new political challenge to Modi midway into his third term, just months after similar protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) youth movement forced the resignation of his education minister over exam paper leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kumar has not commented on the voter lists issue but the election commission and BJP have denied accusations of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI(National Times)- Indian police detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and several lawmakers for the third time in two days on Wednesday as they launched an unannounced protest demanding the resignation of the election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists. Opposition parties, their student units, and the \u201ccockroach\u201d youth movement have been staging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n