Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party led thousands of marchers through New Delhi on Sunday to demand that India’s chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, resign over a revision of the country’s voter rolls.
The revision removed more than 130 million names from the lists, and opposition parties say it was built to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. They say Muslims and other minorities, who are seen as unlikely to vote for the BJP, lost their registrations at a disproportionate rate. Sunday’s march was the latest in more than a month of protests, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. Opposition parties, student groups and the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party have been in the streets almost every day since late September.
Marchers set off from central New Delhi toward Ramlila Maidan, a historic rally ground. The authorities diverted traffic and posted hundreds of police officers around the site, some carrying batons and shields, along with riot-control vehicles. Protesters waved Indian and party flags while opposition leaders rode in an open-top jeep.
The rally was billed as “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao,” or “Save the Vote, Save the Country,” and Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Akhilesh Yadav joined Mr. Gandhi on the stage, according to live coverage by Outlook India. Mr. Gandhi accused Mr. Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Mr. Kumar of undermining the Constitution and the country’s democratic institutions. He said Mr. Kumar would face action and that the opposition would come for Mr. Modi next. Outlook reported that he told the crowd Mr. Kumar would “go to jail.”
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, put it more plainly. “Gyanesh Kumar should resign,” he said.
The government brushed the march off. Jagat Prakash Nadda, the health minister, called it a “carefully orchestrated drama” and told the news agency ANI that it was “a calculated conspiracy to plunge the nation into anarchy, all in the name of democracy.”
The Election Commission denies that it favors any party and says people who were wrongly removed can register again. The BJP has accused the opposition of undermining democracy by challenging what it calls legitimate procedures.
The protests started after Mr. Kumar’s two deputies raised concerns about the revision, the registration process and the commission’s digital systems, objections that surfaced in leaked commission emails. Opposition lawmakers then moved to have Mr. Kumar removed. Police have detained protesters several times since, including leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party at a closed protest site in Delhi last month.
Analysts cited in the Al Jazeera and Reuters report described the protests, and the support the opposition has gained from them, as the most serious political crisis Mr. Modi has faced since he took office in 2014.
India’s next general election is due in 2029.