Protesters in India demand resignation of election chief

NEW DELHI – Indian protesters rallied in New Delhi on Oct 2, demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner over alleged voter-roll irregularities, but were blocked by large police deployments.A newspaper investigation by The Indian Express in September alleged impropriety during a large-scale voter-roll revision that has struck millions of names from lists.The Election Commission, India’s constitutional body responsible for conducting elections, has rejected allegations of wrongdoing over the voter-list revision.Opposition politicians have accused the head of Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Opposition party members also joined the protest in New Delhi, and were briefly detained by police.Jantar Mantar, a government-designated protest site in the heart of the capital, was sealed off by police behind barricades, as protesters gathered on surrounding roads.Mobile internet services were also suspended in the area.Oct 2 is a public holiday to mark the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, and protesters said they were invoking his principles of peaceful demonstration.Protesters waved India’s flag and chanted slogans against the Election Commission, demanding its chief Gyanesh Kumar step down.“My motivation is our future,” Nidhi Sharma, 19, a Delhi University student, told AFP. “I have to vote.”Mina Giri, 38, who said she had lived in Delhi for 15 years and voted in previous elections, said her name had been removed from the rolls.“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 being made, which prevents us from getting government scheme benefits,” he said.“We are poor, don’t have alot and dependent on it.”Kumar has not commented on the allegations, which the ECI said gave “only one part of the picture”.The protests came ahead of demonstrations on the same issue expected in Mumbai later on Oct 2 by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which would be its first protests since July, when their protests helped oust the education minister.The CJP began in May as a satirical online movement launched by Abhijeet Dipke, 31, and grew into a youth protest campaign.India’s opposition parties have also announced protests, with a plan to march to the Election Commission in New Delhi on Oct 6, and hold “Save Democracy” rallies countrywide in the days following. AFP