India's opposition has announced plans for large-scale nationwide protests demanding the resignation of the country's election commission chief over a controversial overhaul of voter rolls.
The opposition alleges the National Election Commission manipulated the revision process to benefit the ruling party by removing millions of voters from draft rolls, while the commission maintains the process was conducted properly.
About 20 leaders of the INDIA alliance — a broad opposition coalition led by the Indian National Congress — met in New Delhi on Wednesday to decide on the protest campaign, according to Bloomberg and Indian media outlets.
The alliance plans to hold protests across the country from Friday through Oct. 8, calling for the resignation of National Election Commission Chairman Gyanesh Kumar, with a march on the commission's offices in New Delhi set for Tuesday.
The decision follows a separate announcement by the Citizens for Justice and Peace, a Generation Z civic group, that it would also launch protests demanding Kumar's resignation starting Friday.
The voter roll controversy erupted after the Indian Express reported on Sept. 23 that the two other members of the three-person commission had raised questions and concerns about the nationwide voter roll revision at least 14 times over the past 10 months.
The two commissioners opposed the overhaul, saying some decisions and orders had been issued without their knowledge in connection with a sweeping revision that removed millions of voters from draft rolls.
The commission said in response that disagreements among commissioners are a normal occurrence in any institution and that all measures taken were lawful.
Ahead of Wednesday's opposition meeting, the Indian National Congress had already called for the resignations of not only Kumar but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing the commission of revising the voter rolls to favor the ruling party.
Opposition leader and former Indian National Congress president Rahul Gandhi, speaking at a press conference after the Wednesday meeting, said a new spirit of resistance was forming among young people who believe the country is being mismanaged — including over the voter roll issue. "We are confident that we will bring about significant change in the months ahead," he said.
The protests come as elections approach in several key states, including the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier this year, the state assembly election in West Bengal was held amid the removal of some 9 million voters from the rolls, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party winning a landslide victory in the state for the first time.
It is notable that the opposition alliance — which in the 2024 general election successfully blocked the BJP from winning an outright majority — has now united around the election commission's voter roll controversy.
Bloomberg noted that the opposition's moves come at a particularly difficult time for the Modi government, which is grappling with rising domestic discontent over youth unemployment and mounting pressure from trade negotiations with the United States.
husn7@heraldcorp.com
