NEW DELHI — Police in India’s capital on Tuesday detained opposition lawmakers, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka, as they marched from Parliament toward the Election Commission headquarters to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a disputed revision of voter rolls, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported.
The lawmakers were forced onto police buses and taken to police stations but were released shortly afterward, when they resumed the march and began a sit-in near the commission’s offices. Police did not say how many were held; the opposition said 237 MPs from a range of parties took part. “The election commission is a puppet in the hands of the government,” Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters, listing three “non-negotiable” demands: Kumar’s resignation, cancellation of the revision and a return to paper ballots.
At the center of the row is the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which began in Bihar in June 2025 and has since expanded to most states. More than 130 million names have been removed from draft voter lists nationwide. The commission says the exercise removes duplicate, deceased and ineligible entries; critics say its document requirements risk excluding millions of eligible voters, and commission data shows rolls in some regions could shrink by as much as 30 percent.
The campaign against Kumar intensified after the Indian Express reported that the commission’s two other members had formally objected at least 14 times to decisions issued in the commission’s name without their knowledge. The commission says differing views are part of its functioning and decisions were ultimately unanimous. India’s Supreme Court has asked the government and commission to respond to a petition on the issue but declined to suspend Kumar for now.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party condemned the march. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said Congress leaders had “decided to establish anarchy in the country and attack institutions.” The youth-led “Cockroach” movement, which staged protests in Mumbai and Delhi last week, has called another round of demonstrations for Oct. 10.
Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera
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