{"id":2621,"date":"2026-10-13T14:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2621"},"modified":"2026-10-13T14:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:01:02","slug":"indian-youth-movement-leaders-detained-during-voter-list-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2621","title":{"rendered":"Indian youth movement leaders detained during voter list protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Top leaders of India\u2019s \u201ccockroach\u201d youth movement were detained \u200bon Tuesday after they jumped barricades to enter the grounds of a historic observatory popular \u200cfor protests, chanting slogans demanding the chief election commissioner\u2019s resignation over a controversial revision of voter lists.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition groups have held almost daily protests this month to demand commissioner Gyanesh<\/a> Kumar\u2019s<\/a> resignation over the revisions critics say favour Prime \u200bMinister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n

The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly \u200bdeleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine \u2060democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.<\/p>\n

Thousands joined a protest march by opposition groups<\/a> on Monday, after a \u200bclampdown foiled CJP plans for a weekend demonstration, with police detaining thousands of protesters, including CJP leaders.<\/p>\n

Delhi Police \u200bannounced on Monday that the Jantar Mantar open-air observatory, in the national capital\u2019s central business district, was no longer designated as an official protest site, and said three new venues had been identified.<\/p>\n

The CJP said its leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das, \u200band Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers who \u201csneaked\u201d inside the observatory to \u201creclaim\u201d it and were detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou \u200bcannot denotify the resistance,\u201d founder Abhijeet Dipke said on X after their detention.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Biggest political challenge for Modi<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A CJP livestream showed about \u200ca \u2060dozen volunteers jumping a gate and barricades to reach the site, where they waved the Indian flag and chanted slogans before police detained them.<\/p>\n

Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The youth movement, which has mobilised protests in recent months against issues ranging from government school infrastructure to jobs, is among \u200bthe biggest political challenges to \u200bModi and his BJP \u2060in his 12 years in power.<\/p>\n

A weeks-long sit-in<\/a> by its supporters at Jantar Mantar earlier this year forced the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam paper \u200bleaks.<\/p>\n

The latest protests erupted after the Indian Express newspaper reported last month that \u200bKumar\u2019s two deputies \u2060raised several concerns internally about voter list revisions, registration procedures and digital systems.<\/p>\n

The change, which started last year, removed over 130 million names \u2013 more than the population of Japan \u2013 from voter lists, including 28 million who died, 63 \u2060million \u200bwho relocated, and 30 million who could not be traced.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties \u200ballege the deletions disproportionately affect Muslim voters and other minorities, who are unlikely to support the Hindu nationalist ruling party \u2014 allegations the poll \u200bpanel and BJP reject.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top leaders of India\u2019s \u201ccockroach\u201d youth movement were detained \u200bon Tuesday after they jumped barricades to enter the grounds of a historic observatory popular \u200cfor protests, chanting slogans demanding the chief election commissioner\u2019s resignation over a controversial revision of voter lists. Supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition groups have held almost daily protests this month to demand commissioner Gyanesh Kumar\u2019s resignation over the revisions critics say favour Prime \u200bMinister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly \u200bdeleted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}