Indian Police Detain 20 Cockroach Movement Activists Over 130 Million Voter Deletions
Updated
Updated · Reuters · Oct 13
Indian Police Detain 20 Cockroach Movement Activists Over 130 Million Voter Deletions
3 articles · Updated · Reuters · Oct 13
Summary
About 20 Cockroach Janta Party activists, including leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde, were detained after jumping barricades and entering New Delhi's Jantar Mantar observatory during an anti-election commission protest.
The group said it was trying to "reclaim" the site after Delhi Police removed Jantar Mantar's status as an official protest venue and shifted demonstrations to three new locations.
The protests target Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a voter-list revision that removed more than 130 million names, including 28 million dead voters, 63 million who relocated and 30 million untraceable people.
Opposition parties say the deletions disproportionately hit Muslim and other minority voters and could benefit Narendra Modi's BJP, while the Election Commission says wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol and denies favouring any party.
The youth movement has become one of Modi's biggest political challenges, sustaining near-daily protests this month after police also detained thousands during a foiled weekend demonstration.