Indian protesters have rallied in New Delhi and Mumbai, including members of the popular youth-led "cockroach" party, demanding the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chief election commissioner over alleged voter-roll irregularities.
Police deployed in large numbers on Friday as protesters waved the national flag and chanted slogans against the Election Commission of India (ECI), demanding its chief Gyanesh Kumar step down.
A newspaper investigation by The Indian Express last month alleged impropriety during a large-scale voter-roll revision that has struck roughly 130 million to 133 million names from lists.
The ECI, India's constitutional body responsible for conducting elections, has rejected allegations of wrongdoing, while Kumar has not commented.
Hundreds of people gathered on roads around Jantar Mantar, a government-designated protest site in the heart of New Delhi, which was sealed off behind police barricades.
"My motivation is our future," 19-year-old protester Nidhi Sharma, a Delhi University student, told AFP news agency. "I have to vote."
Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party or CJP — which began in May as a satirical online movement — meanwhile rallied in Mumbai's Shivaji Park, in their first protests since July, when their nationwide campaign helped oust the education minister.
"One Nation One Election is just a slogan. BJP wants One Nation One Party," said Abhijeet Dipke, founder of CJP, during a protest in Mumbai.
"After vote deletion, BJP won states it had not won even during the peak Modi wave," he said, adding the Modi government is "so incompetent that we have to protest again in two months."
Dipke was joined by prominent Indian cinema figures, including actors Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, musician Vishal Dadlani, and filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj.
Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was also in attendance.
Opposition politicians have accused the ECI of acting at the behest of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
'Right to vote'
At the Delhi protest, Mina Giri, 38, said her name had been removed from the rolls even though she has lived in the capital for 15 years and voted in previous elections.
"How could my fundamental right be taken away from me?" she said.
Another protester, Imran, 18, said his family had been left off the list.
"Because of this, we are struggling to get our other official documents," preventing them from receiving government benefits, he said.
"We are poor, don't have a lot and are dependent on it."
Police detained multiple protesters in Delhi, put them on buses and dropped them off elsewhere, but some returned to the Jantar Mantar site on foot.
"No matter how many times they do this, we are going to return and protest," said Sahana, an advocate who was picked up by police but then walked back two kilometres (a mile) to rejoin the demonstration.
"You cannot take away our right to walk, can you?" she said.
Mobile internet services were also suspended in the area.
Some opposition politicians who joined the protest were briefly detained by police.
Opposition parties have also announced plans for more protests, including a march to the Election Commission in New Delhi on Tuesday and "Save Democracy" rallies countrywide in the days following.
Activist Vijeta Dahiya, who was involved in the previous "cockroach" campaign against the education minister, said that "no one wants to protest, but are forced to raise their voice when the government makes mistakes".
"Protest anywhere in the country," he said. "It is a matter of a right to vote."
Indian police in New Delhi detained more than 700 protesters, including former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, from Jantar Mantar and several locations nearby, Indian media reported.
