Lockdown in Delhi as police detain protesters, leading activists against changes to voter lists

Police in Delhi detain scores of protesters and several leading activists amid patrols by thousands of security forces, with travel and telecoms links suspended, in a lockdown to stop youths from rallying in the Indian capital to demand the country’s election chief resign.

The protest by the self-named, youth-led Cockroach Janta Party aims to draw thousands of demonstrators against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a revision of voter lists that critics say favors Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The protesters said they planned to gather at Jantar Mantar, a protest site designated by authorities in the heart of New Delhi, at 10 a.m.

About 200 protesters were detained in the area, a police source tells Reuters. Those detained outside Delhi included protest supporter Dhruv Rathee, a popular figure on YouTube, a police spokesperson says.

Police in the capital also detained Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach movement, ahead of the protest, the party says, after news networks reported officers confronted him at the Delhi airport upon his arrival from Mumbai and demanded he call off the protest.

CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also detained from their flight upon landing, the movement says in a statement.

With metro stations and markets shut and mobile internet suspended, police boarded buses and checked cars and other vehicles for protesters, Reuters witnesses say. Barricades and concrete blocks stopped traffic, while anti-riot vehicles mounted with tear gas guns were stationed on key routes, the witnesses say.

Meanwhile, television images show police in the central business district of New Delhi chasing down a few dozen young protesters, some wearing backpacks, before they are loaded into vehicles and hauled away.