Opposition leader Gandhi held by police at protest over India voter rolls

Indian authorities held Rahul Gandhi, a senior figure in the main opposition Congress Party, for a short time on Tuesday while he took part in a rally urging the chief election official to quit over a far-reaching revision of voter lists. 

He stood on a barricade waving the national flag, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter, before officers detained him and fellow lawmakers and released them soon after.

Critics allege irregularities in how the overhaul was decided, and opposition politicians accuse the election commission of acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Opponents also argue the exercise hits marginalized and minority communities hardest, particularly Muslims. India’s Election Commission denies wrongdoing and says the process keeps electoral rolls accurate and credible.

Opposition members set off from parliament toward the commission’s headquarters that day, but heavy police deployment blocked them. Later, Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also a lawmaker, camped inside public radio offices next door.

Speaking to journalists from behind the building’s iron gates, Gandhi said: “The country has been hijacked by Narendra Modi through vote theft. What has been done to our country is called treason. Nobody is going to escape.”

The ruling party has rejected the criticism. Spokesman Sambit Patra told journalists on Tuesday: “Some opposition parties, particularly the Congress, are making a concerted effort to change the government and install Rahul Gandhi in power. They are deliberately attacking India’s democracy and constitutional institutions.”

The protest is part of a wider campaign against revision of electoral rolls, reignited by a report last month by The Indian Express newspaper. The report said that 2 of the 3 election commission members had formally objected at least 14 times to major decisions tied to the revision, and 130 million names have been struck from the rolls since the process started in 2025.

Demonstrations started Friday with calls for commission chief Gyanesh Kumar to resign. On Tuesday, placards read “Gyanesh, it’s done, bro,” next to banners alleging rigging of elections. Opposition figures also demanded more transparency, warning that changes to voter rolls may strip eligible citizens of their ballots.

Kumar has yet to speak publicly. The poll body says the overhaul aims to detect voters registered through fraud and keep “foreign illegal immigrants” from voting.

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led satirical political movement that began online in May and forced out the then education minister through its campaign, has urged “mass mobilisation” on Saturday in the capital.

Large left-leaning student organizations also plan to join Saturday’s rally. Separately, on Monday, India’s Supreme Court told the government and poll body to justify decisions connected to the overhaul. Judges will take up the matter again next week.