Indian opposition MPs detained during march demanding election chief resign

Police in Delhi detained opposition MPs on Tuesday as they tried to march to the Election Commission headquarters to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjeet Sheoran told the BBC that officers were stationed at multiple points along the route and that protesters were picked up in buses and taken to different police stations. Police did not disclose how many lawmakers were held, while the opposition said 237 MPs from a range of parties joined the march. Security was tightened around the commission's office, with roads between parliament and the building barricaded.

Tuesday's protest came four days after the Cockroach Janta Party, a Gen Z-backed online satirical movement, held demonstrations in Mumbai and Delhi with the same demand for the election chief's exit. The group described those rallies as the start of a nationwide campaign and has called for another round of protests on 10 October.

At the centre of the controversy is the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which began in Bihar in June 2025 and was later expanded to other parts of the country. The commission says the exercise is meant to remove duplicate and ineligible voters, and more than 130 million names have so far been removed from draft voter lists nationwide. Opposition parties and activists allege that many eligible voters were wrongly excluded and accuse the poll body of carrying out the process improperly.

Momentum against Kumar grew after an Indian Express investigation reported that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders they said were issued in the commission's name without their knowledge. According to the report, the objections covered additions and deletions from voter rolls, access to the voter database and the security of electoral data, with some concerns tied directly to the roll revision programme. The Election Commission, a three-member body, defended its decision-making, saying differing views are part of institutional functioning and that decisions were ultimately taken unanimously.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge described three demands as "non-negotiable": Kumar's resignation, cancellation of the revision exercise and a return to paper ballot voting. Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the lower house, mocked the election chief in a post on X: "Gyanesh, it's done, bro. Time to resign." The BJP condemned the protests, with MP Sambit Patra calling them a "sponsored attempt" to bring about a change of power through "anarchy" and accusing opposition parties of undermining constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission.