India locks down Delhi and detains protest leader Abhijeet Dipke

Police in New Delhi detained Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), on Saturday as authorities locked down the Indian capital to stop a protest demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief.

Police met Dipke at Delhi airport after he flew in from Mumbai and asked him to call off the protest, which authorities had banned, Indian television channels reported. CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were also detained on landing, the movement said, The Express Tribune reported, citing Reuters.

A city under lockdown

Authorities deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel across Delhi, Dawn reported, citing AFP. According to news agency reports:

• metro stations and markets were shut, and mobile internet was suspended
• several trains to Delhi were cancelled, and police checked buses and cars at entry points to the city
• layers of barricades and concrete blocks sealed roads to Jantar Mantar, the government-designated protest site, with anti-riot vehicles on key routes
• about 200 protesters were detained in central Delhi, a police source told Reuters, and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was among those held outside the city

India’s Supreme Court said on Friday that some trains must still run and that there should be no blanket closure of metro stations. Delhi Police said they had not given permission for the protest and described the curbs as “temporary and precautionary”.

‘10,000 detained’

The CJP said “at least 10,000 people”, including protesters travelling by train, had been detained across the country. Police have not responded to that claim.

“Why is the prime minister so scared of the country’s youth, the country’s people?” Dipke asked shortly before leaving Mumbai. “This is nothing but fear.” On X, he wrote: “The dictator would rather shut down the entire national capital and inconvenience millions of citizens than allow a peaceful protest at a designated protest site.”

“You can detain the people, you cannot detain the movement,” said Neha Bora, a leading face of the protest.

The voter list row

The protesters accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using a nationwide revision of voter lists to sway elections, in collusion with appointees including Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The protests grew after the Indian Express reported that Kumar’s deputies had questioned revisions that dropped about 130 million voters.

Election Commission data shows about 130 million names deleted, including 63 million who moved, 30 million who could not be traced and 28 million dead. The commission says the exercise targets duplicate, ineligible and fraudulently registered voters and that wrongly removed voters can re-enrol. Kumar has not commented, and the commission and the BJP deny the allegations.

Critics say the drive has hit marginalised and minority communities hardest. BJP members have long alleged that undocumented Muslim migrants from Bangladesh have entered the rolls.

Why it matters

The protests are a fresh challenge for Modi, 76, months after CJP-led demonstrations forced his education minister to resign over exam leaks, and ahead of key state elections in early 2027, including in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier this week, police briefly detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and AI-made fake posts falsely showed Pakistani actresses backing the protest.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn, The Express Tribune, AFP and Reuters.