Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi detained over election chief protest

What the report says

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was detained in New Delhi on Wednesday during a protest calling for the resignation of India’s chief election official, Gyanesh Kumar, over a disputed revision of voter rolls, according to Al Jazeera’s report citing AP and Reuters. The demonstration involved Gandhi and other opposition lawmakers marching toward Jantar Mantar, a designated protest area in the capital, where police stopped and took several participants into custody.

The protest is part of a wider campaign by opposition parties, student groups and a youth movement described in the report as the “Cockroach” movement. They accuse the Election Commission of favoring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party through the voter-list cleanup. The commission and the government deny any political motive, saying the process is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible names while keeping eligible voters registered.

Al Jazeera reported that more than 130 million names have been removed from India’s voter lists, with millions of people appealing those removals. Gandhi said before being detained that his group intended to reach the protest site and argue that Kumar was not a legitimate commissioner. The detentions add to political pressure on Modi’s government midway through his third term and follow earlier protests that have highlighted broader public anger over accountability, jobs and corruption.