New Delhi police briefly detained Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition members on Monday as they protested a controversial revised electoral roll in Bihar and alleged “vote theft” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world’s most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office.
The opposition members were taken into custody midway while marching from the parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi as they protested the roll revision, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
Nearly two hours later, Congress lawmaker Kishori Lal Sharma said Gandhi and other opposition leaders had been released.
“The police detained us but now we have been released,” he told the media, adding that the police had not allowed them to go to the ECI as promised, and instead took them to the police station.
“We are now heading to the parliament,” he added.
As the police attempted to thwart the protest by around 300 opposition members, some MPs climbed up to the barricade — set up by the police ahead of the march — and chanted slogans against the ECI and Modi’s government. The protestors carried placards alleging “vote theft”, PTI said.
A statement posted on Gandhi’s X account shortly after he was detained said: “The truth of vote theft is now before the country.
“This fight is not political — it is a fight to protect democracy, the constitution, and the right to ‘one person, one vote’,” he added.
“The united opposition and every voter in the country demands a clean and transparent voter list,” the Congress leader added.
Gandhi and Congress have alleged that voters’ lists in states where the party lost are corrupted, with voters’ names deleted or included more than once to rig elections in favour of Modi’s BJP.
Opposition parties have also criticised the ECI’s decision to revise the voters’ list in the key northern state of Bihar just before state elections due later this year, saying it aims to disenfranchise large numbers of poor voters.
The BJP and the ECI have rejected the accusations.
In June, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter rolls was announced ahead of the upcoming polls in the eastern state of Bihar. The move, which required that all potential voters provide proof of citizenship by July 25, sparked nationwide fears of disenfranchisement among India’s minorities, including Muslims and Dalit communities.
According to PTI, other protesting lawmakers detained included Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, T. R. Baalu of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress.
Parliamentarians from other opposition parties, such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal, were also taken into custody, the report added.
‘State of anarchy’
The ECI has said that changes in voters’ lists are shared with political parties and all complaints are investigated thoroughly.
It has also said that voters’ lists need to be revised to remove dead voters or those who have relocated to other parts of the country, among others. Many voters in Bihar have told the BBC that the draft rolls have wrong photos and include dead people.
“The new draft rolls have 72.4 million names — 6.5 million fewer than before,” the BBC report published today said.
Congress and its allies have fared poorly in two state polls that they had expected to win after an impressive show in last year’s general elections, which saw BJP losing its outright majority and remaining in power only with the help of regional parties.
Congress has also complained about electronic voting machines and said the counting process is not fair, charges rejected by the election panel.
The BJP said opposition parties were trying to create a “state of anarchy” by sowing seeds of doubt about the electoral process.
“They are in a state of bankruptcy because of their continuous losses,” Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan of the BJP told reporters on Monday.
As per the PTI report, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had written to the ECI earlier and asked them to hold discussions over the electoral rolls’ SIR, among other issues.
“Thereafter, the MPs wish to collectively meet with the commission on a host of issues, including but not limited to Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls being undertaken in Bihar and proposed to be undertaken in other states as well,” the PTI quoted him as saying.
“We look forward to meeting with the commission, which will be in keeping with the highest tradition of our parliamentary democracy,” he said, according to PTI.