NEW DELHI, INDIA – OCTOBER 10: Police officers detain a demonstrator during a demonstration on October 10, 2026 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images)
Ritesh Shukla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
India’s capital went into lockdown on Saturday to thwart youth protests calling for the resignation of its elected leader, with police suspending travel and communications and detaining scores of demonstrators and their leaders as thousands of security forces patrolled.
The protests by the Cockroaches youth movement were aimed at drawing thousands of demonstrators against Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a revised voter list that critics say favors Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
A Reuters witness said some young protesters in central Delhi chanted “Long live the revolution” as police chased them, and scores of protesters were dragged onto buses and taken away, even as more protesters arrived.
“This is a violation of the rights of the people and the country will no longer tolerate it,” Yogendra Solanki, one of those forced onto the bus, told Reuters.
The police also detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and senior leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka when the plane carrying them to Delhi arrived from Mumbai, the CJP said in a statement.
“I’m here to arrest you, arrest me…I’m not afraid of you,” Dipke told the police officer who spoke to the trio on the plane, according to television footage.
“No, this is not an arrest,” one of the officers replied. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
Delhi locked down to stop protests
The CJP condemned the leader’s “authoritarian detention” and demanded his immediate release, calling it “pre-planned sabotage” aimed at paralyzing the leadership of Saturday’s rally.
Representatives of two digital media companies, X, said police had detained four journalists while covering the protests.
The president of the bar association posted on X that some lawyers who were protesting outside the Supreme Court were also arrested.
Police had no immediate comment on the detention.
Elsewhere in the city of 20 million people, 45 metro stations and markets were closed, and mobile internet was suspended in the central business district.
Police personnel detain a supporter of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) during a protest demanding the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of voter roll fraud related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in New Delhi, October 10, 2026. (Photo by Arun SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Arun Sankar | AFP | Getty Images
A Reuters witness said police stopped protesters at the entrance to the city, boarded buses and searched them for demonstrators, as well as cars and other vehicles.
Traffic was blocked with barricades and concrete blocks, and riot control vehicles equipped with tear gas guns were deployed along major routes.
“Why is the Prime Minister so afraid of the youth and people of this country?” asked Dipke before leaving for Delhi.
“Why did we have to shut down all railways, metros, internet and roads?…This is nothing but horror,” he told news agency ANI in the financial capital Mumbai.
The demonstrators had aimed to gather at Jantar Mantar, the authorities-designated protest site in central New Delhi, at 10 a.m., but security restraints delayed their plans.
New challenge for Mr. Modi
The protests, which the CJP calls an effort to “save democracy”, are planned to be the largest in a series of demonstrations that began last week after the Indian Express reported that Kumar had a disagreement with his representatives who questioned him over the roll amendments that reduced about 130 million voters.
Their number exceeds the population of Japan.
Opposition parties have long accused the government of trying to modify the voter list in their favor, and quickly revived their suspicions following the report.
Mr Kumar has not commented, but the Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party deny the allegations.
The BJP blames Modi’s popularity and India’s economic growth as the main reasons for its electoral advantage, and accuses the opposition of failing to win elections and misleading the country.
Nevertheless, the near-daily protests by rebel groups pose a new political challenge for Mr. Modi, just months after similar demonstrations forced the resignation of the education minister over leaked exam questions.
It also comes months before a series of key state elections starting in early 2027.
On Friday, the Delhi Police had said it had not given permission for the protests and violators would be brought to justice, but the CJP stuck to its plan citing the exercise of fundamental rights.
Deletion affects state polls, opposition claims
Protesters have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of colluding with Election Commission appointees, including Mr. Kumar, to use revised voter lists to sway the election results.
Opposition parties say voter deletion has affected the results of some recent state elections won by the Bharatiya Janata Party, casting a shadow on elections in the world’s largest democracy.
According to data from the Election Commission, about 130 million names were removed from voter rolls during the verification campaign, including 63 million who were relocated, 30 million who could not be traced, and 28 million who died.
The commission said the count represents voter entries that were flagged during the draft amendment stage, and voters who were mistakenly excluded can register again.
