Delhi under clampdown ahead of voter-roll protests
Thousands of police were deployed across the Indian capital on Friday, a day before planned protests to demand the election commission chief step down over alleged voter-roll irregularities, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Demonstrations have erupted this month over the Election Commission of India's (ECI) "special intensive revision" of electoral rolls, which the it says is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters. The Protesters, including from the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), are calling for rallies in on Saturday.
Opposition parties and critics allege the ECI exercise could disenfranchise voters to the benefit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A wave of street protests has attracted key leaders from the opposition Congress party, including Rahul Gandhi, who was briefly detained this week.
More than 20,000 police and paramilitary officers have been deployed in the capital ahead of the protest, the news agency reported. Yellow metal barricades blocked key roads in the city centre, restricting access to the government-designated protest site of Jantar Mantar, AFP reporters saw.
Police have not authorised rallies at the site, and ordered restrictions on the metro subway system from Friday evening "in view of proposed protests and the likelihood of unruly mob movement", a police letter to the metro operator said. Mobile internet services would also be suspended in the central Delhi area.
The CJP has said that its volunteers and supporters were being detained by police ahead of the planned demonstrationallegations police did not respond to. "Delhi police is working like the BJP's private militia," CJP activist Saurav Das said in a post on social media.