Thousands of opposition demonstrators marched to India’s Supreme Court yesterday and petitioned it against a revision of voter lists that has sparked days of unrest in the Indian capital and challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Opposition parties and supporters of the ‘cockroach’ youth movement have rallied almost daily this month to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the revision that critics say benefits Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The change, which started last year, led to more than 130 million names – more than the population of Japan – being struck from voter lists, including 28m who died, 63m who relocated and 30m who could not be traced.
Yesterday’s rally wound its way through some 7km of streets in central Delhi before reaching the Supreme Court, with protesters waving party flags and shouting slogans demanding Kumar quit.
It passed off peacefully amid tight security, after a clampdown foiled plans by the ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ to mobilise larger crowds over the weekend, when police detained thousands of protesters, including CJP leaders, and locked down central Delhi.
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