India Opposition MPs Detained in Voter Roll Protest — SkimNews
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- Delhi Police detained several opposition MPs — including Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge — as they marched toward Election Commission headquarters demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation; the opposition said 237 MPs from a range of parties participated in the march.
- The protest targets the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which began in Bihar in June 2025 and has since been expanded nationwide, removing over 130 million names from draft voter lists — with opposition parties alleging many eligible voters were wrongly excluded.
- An Indian Express investigation reported that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions and orders issued in the Election Commission's name without their knowledge, including matters linked directly to the SIR programme.
- Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge declared three "non-negotiable" demands: Kumar's resignation, cancellation of the SIR exercise, and a return to paper ballot voting; Rahul Gandhi taunted the CEC on Twitter with: "Gyanesh, it's done, bro. Time to resign."
- India's Supreme Court has asked both the federal government and the Election Commission to respond to a petition alleging Kumar took key decisions without approval from the other two election commissioners, indicating decisions must be unanimous or by majority vote and could be set aside if that rule was broken.
- The BJP condemned the protests, with BJP MP Sambit Patra calling them a "sponsored attempt" to bring about change through "anarchy" and accusing opposition parties of seeking to undermine constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission.
- The detention followed by four days demonstrations organized by the "Cockroach Janta Party" (CJP) — a Gen Z-backed online satirical movement — in Mumbai and Delhi, also demanding the CEC's resignation and calling for another round of protests on 10 October.
Why it matters: The Supreme Court is now examining whether Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar bypassed his two colleagues on 14 documented occasions — directly bearing on the legitimacy of the 130-million-name voter purge. With opposition demanding paper ballots and the BJP branding the protests "anarchy," the court's procedural ruling will shape institutional credibility ahead of upcoming elections.
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