Politics
Rahul Gandhi taken into custody during New Delhi protest over voter rolls
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and other lawmakers were detained Wednesday as they marched toward a designated protest site in New Delhi. Opposition parties are demanding the election chief’s resignation over alleged voter-registration manipulation, claims denied by the election commission and government.
NEW DELHI — Police detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and several other lawmakers and protesters Wednesday during a march in India’s capital over revisions to voter lists.
Gandhi and the demonstrators were stopped as they headed toward Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in New Delhi. A live video feed on Gandhi’s Congress party’s YouTube channel showed police placing him in a vehicle and driving him away. His sister, fellow lawmaker Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was also at the protest.
The opposition is calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It accuses the election commission, which he leads, of manipulating voter registrations to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The commission and the government deny the allegations.
The dispute over voter-list revisions has become a focus of an intensifying opposition campaign, putting the integrity of election administration at the center of a public political confrontation.