New Delhi Locked Down for Third Consecutive Day to Counter Gandhi March; Police Reportedly Use Mass Detentions and Barricades to Suppress Protests Against Electoral Roll Revision

New Delhi police on Monday turned the central district into a fortress, erecting hundreds of yellow metal barricades and shutting down six major metro stations, in preparation for opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's call for a march to the federal Supreme Court under the banner of fighting alleged "electoral theft." According to Agence France-Presse and Reuters, this marked the third consecutive day that thousands of police officers have been deployed across the capital.

Gandhi demanded the resignation of Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. On Sunday, he wrote on social media: "There is nothing to fear. These cowards cannot touch us." However, according to a Congress party source, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant declined a meeting request by email, saying the matter was already before the court and should be pursued through judicial channels.

The standoff stems from a nationwide voter roll review led by the Election Commission. According to data released by the agency, more than 133 million names were removed during the verification process, including 28 million deceased individuals, 63 million migrants and 30 million people who could not be traced — a scale roughly equivalent to the entire population of a mid-sized country. The opposition has accused that Muslim voters and other minority groups were disproportionately represented among those removed, on the grounds that they are less likely to support the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Both the Election Commission and the BJP have denied the claim.

The weekend chaos has thrust police tactics into the spotlight. According to local media reports, several thousand protesters were detained over the weekend alone, including three core leaders of the social media youth movement "Cockroach Janta Party," most of whom were later released.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said at least 16 journalists were detained during the weekend protests, calling the action "unacceptable." Multiple journalists with press credentials claimed they had been taken into custody. According to AFP and Reuters, police did not respond to questions about the number of detentions or the methods used at a press briefing on Sunday.

John Brittas, a lawmaker from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), alleged he was "shoved, dragged and beaten" by police during Sunday's demonstration. He said: "This is not just an attack on a lawmaker, it is an attack on democratic freedoms and the rule of law."

Meanwhile, the Cockroach Janta Party announced that its leaders would go to Delhi police on Monday to "demand" a date for a peaceful protest and threatened to launch a separate protest within 24 hours if no response was received. The movement boasts millions of followers on social media platforms, and its leaders have vowed not to stop until Kumar steps down.

The protest is widely seen as one of the most serious political challenges facing Prime Minister Modi's third term, drawing together opposition parties, student groups and activists. The authorities have responded to questions about the transparency of electoral administration — with more than 133 million names removed and no public, itemized explanation offered — by blocking streets, shutting down public transport and detaining journalists and lawmakers.