Thousands rally in Delhi against India's election chief, voter roll revision

NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of people gathered in Delhi on Sunday for a major opposition rally demanding the resignation of India's chief election commissioner and electoral reforms. The rally, organized by the main opposition Congress party and led by Rahul Gandhi, took place at Ramlila Maidan, a large ground in central Delhi known for hosting political rallies and protests. The Gen Z-led pressure group Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, also pledged support. Security was tightened, with thousands of police and paramilitary personnel deployed near the grounds. Sunday's event was the latest show of opposition anger over a voter-list revision exercise that has removed 130 million names from draft electoral rolls in India. The Election Commission of India says the exercise is aimed at updating the voters' list by purging names of people who have died or moved away from their registered addresses. But opposition parties allege the exercise, known as the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party by removing eligible voters from the rolls. They accuse the chief election commissioner and the BJP of "vote chori," or vote theft. Both the BJP and the Election Commission have denied the allegations. The controversy intensified in September when The Indian Express reported that the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, made key decisions related to the exercise without the agreement of the two other election commissioners, who had raised objections on more than a dozen occasions. On Saturday, opposition leaders staged a symbolic impeachment of Kumar at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in Delhi. The mock parliamentary session, presided over by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, saw leaders accuse the election chief of "conspiring to steal elections" and deliberately removing 130 million voters from electoral rolls. Kharge, who is also the leader of the opposition in parliament's upper house, moved a symbolic motion seeking Kumar's removal, accusing him of undermining the electoral process and committing an act of "treason against the nation and the Constitution of India." Several people whose names had been removed from electoral rolls during the revision exercise also attended the event. The proceedings were purely symbolic and had no legal standing. Under Indian law, the chief election commissioner can only be removed through a formal parliamentary process. Modi has not directly commented on the mock impeachment proceedings. However, speaking at a public rally on Friday, he said that "some people" wanted to create chaos across the country so that he could be defamed. Later on Saturday, while addressing a separate rally, he also accused opposition parties of "abandoning their duty" and "tearing apart the dignity and boundaries of the constitution." Delhi police gave permission to hold Sunday's rally, but with several conditions. Media reports said the rally must end by 5 p.m., CCTV cameras must be installed at the venue and no marches would be allowed outside the designated protest site. The planned rally has also divided opinion among traders in Chandni Chowk, one of Delhi's oldest and busiest markets, located less than a kilometer from Ramlila Maidan. Authorities deployed thousands of police and paramilitary personnel across the city, including the roads leading up to Ramlila Grounds, Sunday's protest venue. The opposition, which had been preparing for the rally for days, accused the government of trying to stop people from traveling to Delhi to take part in the protest.