India's Cockroach Janta Party and student groups protest, demand poll chief's resignation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced renewed pressure on Friday as the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and a coalition of student and activist groups held protests.

They are demanding the resignation of the elections commission chief over a controversial voter roll revision.

What is the Cockroach Janta Party protest about?

The CJP is protesting a nationwide voter-verification exercise, and it wants Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign. Its main allegation is that the commission manipulated voter rolls in ways that favour Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The commission and the government deny this.

Where are the protests taking place?

The influential CJP will rally in Mumbai and plans to expand demonstrations nationwide in the coming days. Student and civil society groups will gather at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar. In Mumbai, protesters were expected to gather in the afternoon, and hundreds of police were seen assembling around the site.

A few dozen protesters gathered in Delhi on Friday morning, but police bundled some into buses and took them away. Several nearby metro stations remained shut and security was tightened. Officers repeatedly warned over loudspeakers against gatherings of more than five people, as hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel surrounded the barricaded protest site.

As police pushed him onto a bus, protester Rishabh Singh said, "the right to protest is our fundamental right, and we want answers from the government on vote theft."

Why are protesters demanding Gyanesh Kumar's resignation?

Pressure on Kumar intensified last month after the Indian Express newspaper reported that the election chief's two deputies had formally raised concerns at least 14 times over the past 10 months. The concerns covered voter-list revisions, registration procedures and the commission's digital systems. The Election Commission has said differing views are normal in internal deliberations.

"We have been asking and demanding for a change, but nothing of that is going to happen if our only tool that is left to change anything in our society, the right to vote, is taken away from us," Saurav Das, CJP's convenor, told Indian news agency ANI on Thursday. "We will only end the protest after Gyanesh Kumar resigns."

"People are being stripped off their voting rights," said June Moniroy, a protester in Delhi who has been excluded from the voter list. "Gyanesh Kumar must resign."

What is the voter roll revision controversy?

The controversy centers on a nationwide voter-verification exercise launched last year. Critics say it has led to millions of eligible voters being removed from electoral rolls. The commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased or ineligible voters.

The protests mark the latest escalation in a dispute that has put unprecedented scrutiny on India's Election Commission, long regarded as one of the country's most trusted institutions. On Friday, the poll body directed officials to register newly eligible voters and those omitted from electoral rolls, the latest indication it is easing its stance. Opposition parties led by the Congress party are also set to begin protests demanding Kumar's resignation on October 6.

Who leads the Cockroach Janta Party?

The CJP is a youth movement that emerged earlier this year from online frustration over unemployment and leaked examination papers. It has become an unexpected political force. Led by Abhijeet Dipke, the party gained national prominence after spearheading mass protests over exam-paper leaks.

Those protests led to the resignation of India's education minister, one of Modi's most significant political setbacks in recent years.