Reuters
source: Reuters
Thousands of youth protesters and opposition supporters rallied in Delhi and Mumbai on Sunday to demand the resignation of India’s election commission chief over changes to voter rolls, as police detained some demonstrators for a third day.
Opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led protests in Mumbai, calling for the revisions to be scrapped and for Election Commission Chief Gyanesh Kumar to step down.
The protesters say the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge denied by the Election Commission and the BJP.
In the capital, New Delhi, protesters started gathering in the early evening and some were detained by police, according to a Reuters witness.
Some demonstrators breached police barricades and surrounded vehicles carrying detained demonstrators, climbing onto them and laying on the road to block their path, the witness added.
“Police dragged me by my hair,” said Aahna Singh, an activist and political science student at Jawaharlal Nehru University who was protesting. “The police are resorting to brutality.”
