Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather in the Indian capital, Delhi, for a mega opposition rally, seeking the resignation of chief election commissioner and electoral reforms. The rally, called by the main opposition Congress party, will begin around noon at the famous Ramlila Maidan grounds, with leaders claiming a million people could attend. Several top leaders of the Congress-led INDIA alliance have said they would attend and the influential Gen Z-led pressure group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has also pledged support. The rally comes amid growing criticism of a voter-list revision exercise that has removed 130 million names from the draft rolls across India.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) 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 that the exercise – known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) – could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by removing eligible voters from the rolls. They accuse the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the BJP of “vote chori (theft)”. Both the BJP and the ECI have denied the allegations.
The controversy intensified in September when The Indian Express newspaper in its investigation, external reported that the CEC, 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. The Election Commission said differences of opinion were normal in any institution and did not affect its functioning. But concerns over the revision process have continued, with the opposition parties, the CJP and student groups organising a number of protests in Delhi and other Indian cities. Last month, Congress MP and leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi led tens of thousands of protesters in a march from Connaught Place in central Delhi to the Supreme Court, seeking the CEC’s resignation.
“The march was just the trailer,” a party leader told the BBC, adding that “Sunday’s rally will be several times bigger than that”. Ahead of the rally, Gandhi said their protest was against “the demolition of Indian democracy”, adding that “all the opposition parties and everybody who wants to come, political or non-political, is welcome”. “There is huge anger, huge emotional pain because millions are being disenfranchised,” he said. “We are all standing together because we are defending the Constitution.
We are defending the idea of India. We are defending the vote, which is the expression of all Indians.” Delhi police have given permission to hold Sunday’s rally, but it comes with several conditions. Media reports say the rally must end by 5pm, CCTV cameras must be installed at the venue and no marches will be allowed outside the designated protest site. The planned mega rally has also divided opinion among traders in Chandni Chowk, one of Delhi’s oldest and busiest markets, located less than a kilometre from Ramlila Maidan.
Earlier this week, a group of traders said the protest could hurt business during the festive season, coming just a week before Diwali. But a rival group of traders said they supported Gandhi’s rally and criticised the BJP for taking out a march through the market on Thursday, saying that disrupted the festive season more. Authorities have 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 has been preparing for the rally for days now, has accused the government of trying to stop people from travelling to Delhi to take part in the protest.
Rahul Gandhi has appealed to people to turn up in large numbers. “Don’t worry about the police, don’t worry about lathis [batons] – the BJP will not have the guts to try any of their antics,” he wrote on X. His comments come amid growing concerns about the policing of recent protests in the capital. On 10 October, thousands of security personnel were deployed and large parts of the city were shut down to thwart protests called by the CJP against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
All of the top CJP leaders were detained and many demonstrators were beaten and dragged through the streets to break up their protests. BBC reporters covering demonstrations saw, external police dragging away protesters and using batons on some of them. The CJP has publicly backed the INDIA bloc rally, but it is unclear whether its senior leaders will attend.
