Hundreds of police guard Indian capital ahead of opposition protest

Hundreds of security personnel fanned out on Tuesday in the heart of the Indian capital, with barricades thrown up ahead of an opposition march to demand the resignation of the election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists.

Parties opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of the popular ‘cockroach’ youth movement protested against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after the Indian Express newspaper reported divisions in the poll body last month.

The reported differences over the lists and registration procedures stoked concern about the commission’s neutrality.

Television showed hundreds of security personnel, some holding batons, outside the barricaded office of the Election Commission, close to parliament and government offices.

The march by lawmakers of parties opposed to Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party was set for 11 am, starting from parliament to the office of the election commission, the main opposition party Congress said.

Congress and other parties allege that the revised voter lists benefit Modi and his party. Kumar has not commented on the issue, but the commission and Modi’s BJP denied the accusations.

Authorities advised against travel around planned protest areas and shut off some routes.

Tuesday’s event is the latest of a series of almost daily demonstrations by student organisations, political parties and the ‘cockroach’ movement, which began last week.

India’s Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear legal arguments seeking its intervention in the accusations against the poll body’s voter drive, and the conduct of its chief.

If “there are decisions against the law … We will take care of it,” the court said at the hearing, after the petitioners alleged bias by the poll body.