{"id":3612,"date":"2026-11-01T11:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T06:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3612"},"modified":"2026-11-01T11:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T06:03:47","slug":"india-tightens-security-ahead-of-big-opposition-march-in-delhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3612","title":{"rendered":"India tightens security ahead of big opposition march in Delhi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Indian security personnel carrying batons and shields and accompanied by riot control vehicles surrounded the site of a planned opposition protest in Delhi on Sunday that is set to \u200bdemand the resignation of the country\u2019s election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Authorities \u200cwarned of traffic diversions ahead of the protest march and rally that will be led by Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi.<\/p>\n

The opposition says it expects hundreds of thousands of people to participate in what it says will be a major \u200bchallenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n

Opposition parties, student organisations<\/a> and the youth-led<\/a> Cockroach \u200bJanta Party have held near-daily demonstrations<\/a> since last month demanding that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar<\/a> \u2060step down over the voter list revision that critics say favours the BJP.<\/p>\n

The Election Commission has denied favouring \u200bany party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the BJP has accused rivals of trying to \u200bundermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the youth protests and growing support for the opposition form the worst crisis<\/a> for Modi since he came to power in 2014. But his government remains stable, and the next general election is not \u200bdue until 2029.<\/p>\n

The opposition parties have announced they will hold a nearly 1.5km march on \u200bSunday from Central Delhi to the Ramlila Maidan, a ground that is the designated site for their protest rally.<\/p>\n

Visuals from news \u200cagency \u2060ANI showed riot control vehicles and dozens of security personnel armed with batons and shields outside the rally venue, where announcements were being made urging people to ensure smooth traffic movement and cooperate with police officials.<\/p>\n

Delhi Traffic Police said \u201ca large gathering\u201d was expected at the venue, and traffic regulations and diversions would be implemented \u201cas required\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople \u200bhave started coming to \u200bparticipate in this rally\u2026we \u2060have ensured proper arrangements at the venue, and arrangements are also planned on the route of the march that will happen in a few hours from now,\u201d senior \u200bpolice officer Rohit Rajbir told ANI.<\/p>\n

The protests demanding Kumar\u2019s resignation erupted after The \u200bIndian Express<\/em> \u2060newspaper reported in September that his two deputies had raised several concerns internally about voter list revisions, registration procedures, and digital systems.<\/p>\n

The change, which began last year, removed over 130 million names<\/a> \u2014 more than the population of Japan \u2014 from \u2060voter lists, \u200bincluding 28 million who died, 63 million who relocated, and 30 \u200bmillion who could not be traced.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties allege the deletions disproportionately affect Muslim voters and other minorities, who are unlikely to support \u200bthe Hindu nationalist ruling party \u2014 allegations the poll panel and BJP reject.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian security personnel carrying batons and shields and accompanied by riot control vehicles surrounded the site of a planned opposition protest in Delhi on Sunday that is set to \u200bdemand the resignation of the country\u2019s election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists. Authorities \u200cwarned of traffic diversions ahead of the protest march and rally that will be led by Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi. The opposition says it expects hundreds of thousands of people to participate in what it says will be a major \u200bchallenge to Prime Minister…<\/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-3612","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\/3612","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=3612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}