PTI, ‘thousands at the demonstration despite the ban, especially young people’
The protest organized by the political-satirical group Cockroach Janta Party to demand the resignation of the president of the Indian electoral commission, Gyanesh Kumar, has begun in Mumbai: this was reported by several local media, including the PTI news agency, according to which “thousands” of people gathered in Shivaji Park despite the police having denied permission to demonstrate. The Indian Express claims that according to the police there were around 4,000 demonstrators.
A similar protest took place in New Delhi today. The protesters are protesting the Special Intensive Revision (Sir), a revision of the electoral lists launched last year and which according to some observers would have led to the removal of millions of names from the electoral lists. The government claims that the initiative eliminated people who did not have the right to vote from the lists, but the opposition believes that minorities and more socially isolated groups were penalized.
In an article published at the end of September, the Indian Express writes that two of the three members of the electoral commission have raised 14 official objections to the decisions regarding the revision of the electoral lists. But the electoral commission responded by claiming that all decisions would be taken unanimously by its three members.
In June and July the Cockroach Janta Party organized a mass protest against an alleged leak of information on medical school entrance questions that led to the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
