{"id":3634,"date":"2026-11-01T17:03:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2026-11-01T17:03:56","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:03:56","slug":"thousands-protest-in-delhi-demand-resignation-of-election-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3634","title":{"rendered":"Thousands protest in Delhi, demand resignation of election chief"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thousands protested in Delhi on Sunday to demand the resignation of India\u2019s election chief over a revision of voter lists,<\/a> the latest in more than a month of opposition demonstrations challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Led by Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi, Sunday\u2019s protesters say the controversial revision benefits Modi\u2019s Hindu radical Bharatiya \u200bJanata Party.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the protests and growing support for the opposition form the worst crisis<\/a> for Modi since he came to \u200bpower in 2014, though his government remains stable and the next general election is not due until 2029.<\/p>\n

Authorities \u2060tightened security and warned of traffic diversions before protesters began a march from central Delhi to the designated rally site, where the \u200bopposition has predicted hundreds of thousands of people would participate.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Calls for accountability<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hundreds of security personnel, some of them carrying batons \u200band shields and accompanied by riot-control vehicles, surrounded the historic Ramlila Maidan ground as hundreds of people, many waving national and party flags, began moving towards it.<\/p>\n

Opposition party leaders led the march in an open-top jeep.<\/p>\n

Among the thousands waiting for the marchers at the Ramlila Maidan was Reena Mahto, a member \u200bof the Congress\u2019 student wing, who said four people from her family had been deleted from the voter list due to the \u200bfalse claim that they had moved elsewhere.<\/p>\n

She told Reuters the family has long lived in Jagdalpur in the central state of Chhattisgarh, but \u201cnow all of \u200ca sudden \u2060we have been marked as shifted from our own house,\u201d adding, \u201cThere should be accountability, and we are here to seek that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change to voter rolls removed over 130 million names<\/a> \u2014 more than the population of Japan.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties allege the deletions disproportionately affected Muslim voters and other minorities, who are unlikely to support the BJP.<\/p>\n

The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the \u200bBJP has accused rivals of trying \u200bto undermine democracy by wrongly \u2060questioning legitimate electoral processes.<\/p>\n

Dinesh Singh said he was joining the protest for the sake of his children\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not affiliated with any political party,\u201d he said. \u201cI am here for a cause. I want \u200bthe children to remember that we fought for their future.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Minister sees conspiracy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Health Minister Jagat Prakash \u200bNadda, however, called \u2060the protest a \u201ccarefully orchestrated drama\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is unfolding today at Ramlila Maidan is not an act of respect for democracy. It is a calculated conspiracy to plunge the nation into anarchy, all in the name of democracy,\u201d he told news agency ANI.<\/p>\n

The demonstration is the latest in a series \u2060of near-daily protests<\/a> \u200bthat opposition parties, student organisations<\/a> and the youth-led<\/a> Cockroach Janta Party have held since late September \u200bdemanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.<\/a><\/p>\n

The protests erupted after the Indian Express<\/em> newspaper reported that Kumar\u2019s two deputies had raised several concerns internally about voter list \u200brevisions, registration procedures and digital systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands protested in Delhi on Sunday to demand the resignation of India\u2019s election chief over a revision of voter lists, the latest in more than a month of opposition demonstrations challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Led by Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi, Sunday\u2019s protesters say the controversial revision benefits Modi\u2019s Hindu radical Bharatiya \u200bJanata Party. Analysts say the protests and growing support for the opposition form the worst crisis for Modi since he came to \u200bpower in 2014, though his government remains stable and the next general election is not…<\/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-3634","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\/3634","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=3634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}