Opposition plans supreme court march as Delhi police close six metro stations

Voter-list revision removed over 130 million names from India’s electoral rolls

Delhi police closed six metro stations on Monday and announced traffic restrictions at 20 locations, citing “security reasons,” as the opposition Congress party prepared to submit a memorandum to India’s supreme court protesting a voter-list revision. The march is intended to demand an end to what Congress calls “vote theft” and the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The voter-list revision, which began last year, removed over 130 million names from India’s electoral rolls during a verification exercise — more than the population of Japan, according to The Guardian. Of those removed, 30 million could not be traced, 28 million were people who had died, and 63 million had relocated, the report said.

Opposition parties and supporters of a youth movement known informally as the “cockroach” movement have demonstrated almost daily this month to demand Kumar’s resignation. Opposition parties allege that Muslim voters and other minorities, who are unlikely to support the Hindu nationalist ruling BJP, are disproportionately affected by the deletions.

Both the Election Commission of India and the BJP have rejected those allegations. The commission has said wrongly deleted voters can re-enroll, while the BJP has accused its rivals of trying to undermine India’s democracy by questioning legitimate electoral processes.

Police detained thousands of protesters in Delhi over the weekend, including leaders of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), as supporters of the youth movement sought to march and were stopped by thousands of security personnel who locked down central Delhi.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on X that “youth, all opposition parties, civil society groups, all those who believe in democracy and stand by the Constitution of India, will walk with us.” Chief Justice Surya Kant, however, declined a meeting request in an email, telling Gandhi and the Congress delegation to approach the court legally since the issue was already being heard by the court, according to a Congress source.

Separately, the CJP said its leaders would meet Delhi police to “demand” a date for a peaceful protest and threatened to announce a new call to protest if a date is not given within 24 hours.

The youth movement has mobilized protests in recent months against a range of issues, including government school infrastructure and jobs, and represents one of the biggest political challenges to Modi and the BJP in his 12 years in power.

The current protests erupted after the Indian Express newspaper reported last month that Kumar’s two deputies had raised concerns internally about voter-list revisions, registration procedures, and digital systems.