India’s ‘Cockroach’ movement says many members detained ahead of Delhi rally

There have been near-daily protests across India demanding chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over a controversial voter list revision. (EPA Images pic) BENGALURU: Indian authorities started mass detentions of people associated with the "Cockroach" youth movement, the group said Thursday, just days ahead of a major planned protest in Delhi to demand the resignation of the nation's top poll official.

Opposition parties, their student units, and the "Cockroach" youth movement have been holding almost daily demonstrations seeking chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over a controversial revision of voter lists.

Many activists from across the country and a senior member and spokesman of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Deepak Baliyan, were among those arrested, the movement and its leaders said on social media platform X.

Police authorities didn't immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments. Videos posted on social media platform X showed activists being taken away in vans.

Reuters couldn't immediately verify the claims or videos posted on X.

The CJP said that among those detained was a group of students from the Western city of Pune who were headed for the Oct 10 protest in Delhi. It said they were being taken away in a bus to an unknown location.

"Why not just declare EMERGENCY?", CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said in a response to a post with a video of activists being detained.

"At least 10000 people have been detained across the country across (Cockroach Janta Party), various student orgs, Kisaan and Dalit Sangathans, political parties. THIS IS EMERGENCY," Ashutosh Ranka, a spokesman for the movement, said in a post on X.

New political challenge for Modi

Opposition parties and the CJP have accused prime minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using a revision of voter lists to fix them in its favour, in collusion with its appointees, including Kumar.

The protests present a new political challenge to Modi midway into his third term, just months after similar demonstrations led by the CJP forced the resignation of his education minister over exam paper leaks.

Kumar has not commented but the Election Commission and the BJP have denied the allegations.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of supporters of the CJP youth movement protested in tech hub Bengaluru.

Many of the protesters held posters that said, "Every name counts, Every vote matters" and "Stop the Murder of Democracy".

"I think voting right is the most basic point of democracy ... People who actually want to vote, who actually care about the future of India, they are just being (denied) voting rights," Khushi Shrivastava, a 22-year-old architecture student who attended the Bengaluru protest, told Reuters.

Anger over detention of politicians

There were also protests over police action against Congress party leaders and the voter lists revisions.

On Wednesday, the opposition Congress Party accused police of using "brute force" to briefly detain party leader Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Vadra, and other lawmakers as they tried to reach the Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi.

Delhi Police said the allegations were being used to "defame" the force.

BJP spokesman Gaurav Bhatia said the allegations were "being levelled by an irresponsible, anarchist opposition". The claims had "no base, not an iota of evidence", he told reporters at a media briefing on Thursday.