San Francisco Frontiers - India detains 'cockroach' leaders ahead of election protest

The demonstration, due to take place in New Delhi, is the culmination of weeks of opposition mobilisation following allegations of misconduct during a nationwide voter-roll revision by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders were detained before disembarking from a flight in the capital, the youth-led CJP said in a social media post, while television networks aired footage showing uniformed police aboard the plane.

"It's official... we are living under an absolute dictatorship," Arvind Kejriwal of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party said in a statement.

"Arresting cockroaches straight off their flight shows an unprecedented level of fear."

Opposition parties and other critics say the voter-roll revision could disenfranchise millions of voters and benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

The ECI has rejected allegations of impropriety, saying the "special intensive revision" was intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters.

Delhi has been under a strict security clampdown since Friday, with tens of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel deployed to stop those seeking to reach the main protest site in the heart of the city.

Authorities have closed dozens of metro stations, cancelled several trains coming to Delhi and temporarily shut down mobile internet around the protest site.

AFP reporters saw police chasing down protesters on Saturday and hauling them into vehicles around central Delhi.

More than 200 protesters have been detained so far, local media reports said.

Media outlets, including the Scroll and Newslaundry, said their journalists had also been detained.

AFP was unable to reach police for comment on the reported detentions.

The protests are widely seen as a reprise of the "cockroach" movement's mass mobilisation in July, which led to the education minister stepping down over an examination scandal.

This time, they are demanding ECI chief Gyanesh Kumar resign from his post.

- 'Choking the city' -

The allegations are a fresh challenge for 76-year-old Modi during his third term in office.

Opposition parties have long alleged that legitimate voters are being struck off voter lists in India, the world's largest democracy with 1.4 billion people.

But the issue blew up last month when the Indian Express reported that key decisions linked to the revision were likely taken without the approval of two of the three election commissioners.

Sanjeev Takshak, one of a handful of protesters who managed to reach close to the protest site on Saturday, said he had come there out of "a sense of duty".

"The state is choking the entire city to prevent people from expressing their opinion," Takshak, a lawyer, said.

"It is absolutely not fair," the 42-year-old told AFP.

Delhi Police said they had taken the steps to ensure law and order.

"People should be able to raise their concerns peacefully," the force said in a statement. "Our responsibility is to create the conditions in which they can do that safely, while keeping the city functioning."

Amnesty International denounced the "lockdown-like restrictions".

"Peaceful protesters must be able to demand accountability from those in power without facing intimidation, arbitrary detention, or sweeping restrictions on their freedoms," it said in a statement.

The voter list overhaul, which began in 2025, has led to more than 133 million names being excluded from draft rolls.

The exclusions include duplicate entries and people found to have died.

The poll body said the exercise identifies fraudulently registered voters and aims to prevent "foreign illegal immigrants" from casting ballots.

Critics say the drive has disproportionately affected marginalised and minority communities.

Members of Modi's party have long alleged that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India's electoral rolls.

A.Smith--SFF