Hundreds of protesters have reportedly been detained in Delhi during the newest demonstration by the Gen-Z led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over electoral reforms.
The group said its founder Abhijeet Dipke, who started the motion in May after India’s Chief Justice likened some jobless younger people to “cockroaches”, was detained with other leaders shortly after touchdown in Delhi.
Tens of hundreds of security personnel were deployed and roads barricaded forward of the demonstration, though the CJP insisted it would go forward.
Delhi Police has not commented on the detentions, but had refused permission for the protest to take place at Jantar Mantar, a landmark in the Indian capital.
The group – who are not registered as a political occasion in India – are looking for electoral reforms just months before essential state elections.
It has also demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulating voters’ lists – which the Election Commission has denied.
Under Kumar’s management, India’s election commission has undertaken a mammoth train to replace electoral rolls nationwide – it said this was a routine train to weed out useless, duplicate or ineligible voters.
But in many states, the train has been shrouded in controversy, with tens of hundreds of people alleging they have been wrongly eliminated.
The CJP – and opposition events – accuse Kumar of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the means the electoral rolls are being up to date.
The Election Commission and the BJP have denied this.
Before arriving in Delhi, the CJP’s founder Dipke said: “If you think you can stop us by threatening us with jail or trying to intimidate us with the fear of imprisonment, you are mistaken.”
He and and two other leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were detained on their flight from Mumbai on Saturday.
The group claimed the three males have been taken to an undisclosed location. Delhi Police have not commented.
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