New Delhi: Indian police detained leaders and volunteers of the Cockroach Janta Party during a protest in New Delhi on Tuesday, as tensions continued over the revision of voter lists and demands for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The demonstrators entered the grounds of Jantar Mantar, a well known protest site in India's capital, despite a recent decision by Delhi Police to remove the location from its list of officially designated protest venues. The party said about 20 volunteers were detained during the latest incident.
Those detained included Ashutosh Ranka, a party co convenor, Saurav Das, the party's chief spokesperson, and Ajinkya Shinde, another party leader. The activists were protesting against the election chief's handling of the voter list revision and demanding his resignation.
The controversy centres on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, a process intended to update voter lists by removing duplicate and ineligible registrations. Opposition parties have raised concerns that the exercise could exclude eligible voters and have questioned whether it is being carried out fairly.
According to reported figures, more than 130 million names have been removed from voter lists since the revision began in 2025. The reported categories include 28 million people recorded as deceased, 63 million people said to have relocated and 30 million people who could not be traced. However, these categories account for 121 million names, leaving a difference of at least nine million from the overall figure. A complete breakdown of the reported total remains unclear.
Opposition parties have alleged that the revision could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and disproportionately affect Muslim voters and other minority communities. They have called for greater transparency and accountability in the process.
The Election Commission of India and the BJP have rejected allegations of political manipulation. They maintain that electoral rolls must be updated to remove ineligible registrations and ensure accurate voter lists. The available information does not independently establish that the removals were deliberately designed to benefit the ruling party or that all those removed were eligible voters.
The Election Commission has said that people whose names were wrongly removed can re enrol. However, the number of eligible voters who may have been wrongly excluded, and the number who have successfully re enrolled, remain unclear.
The latest detentions followed a larger police crackdown on demonstrators over the weekend. Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and other party leaders were among those detained during the earlier operation. A court subsequently ordered the release of three leaders, including Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das.
The earlier detentions were separate from Tuesday's incident. Reports of the number of people detained during the weekend varied, and those figures should not be confused with the party's estimate of about 20 volunteers detained on Tuesday.
On Monday, opposition lawmakers and supporters marched towards the Supreme Court of India to raise concerns about the voter list revision. They submitted a petition to the chief justice alleging irregularities and seeking action over the issue. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took part in the march.
The submission of the petition did not establish that the allegations were true. Any subsequent judicial decision on the matter would need to be considered separately.
The protests have also raised questions about restrictions on public demonstrations in the capital. On Monday, Delhi Police announced that Jantar Mantar would no longer be an officially designated protest site and identified three alternative venues for demonstrations.
The decision became a central issue in Tuesday's confrontation, as Cockroach Janta Party activists entered the grounds to continue their protest. Jantar Mantar has long been a prominent location for demonstrations on political, social and public policy issues.
The dispute over voter lists has developed into a wider political debate about electoral transparency and public confidence in India's democratic institutions. Accurate electoral rolls are essential to fair elections, but the removal of ineligible registrations must not prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote.
Key questions remain about how many eligible voters may have been wrongly removed, whether they can re enrol without difficulty and whether the revision has been applied consistently across communities and regions.
The continuing protests have increased pressure on the Election Commission and the Delhi authorities to explain their decisions. The controversy is likely to remain a point of political disagreement as opposition parties continue to demand answers about the voter list revision and the handling of demonstrations in New Delhi.