വോട്ടർ പട്ടികയിലെ ക്രമക്കേട്: മുഖ്യ തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പ് കമ്മീഷണറുടെ രാജി ആവശ്യപ്പെട്ട് യൂത്ത് കോൺഗ്രസ് സമരം

The Indian Youth Congress on Friday staged a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, demanding his resignation and the restoration of names it said were wrongly deleted from voter lists. Wearing Batman masks, the protesters said the revision exercise had led to the exclusion of eligible voters and raised concerns about the Election Commission's functioning.

Led by IYC president Uday Bhanu Chib, the protesters tried to march from Akbar Road towards Kartavya Path in New Delhi. The Congress' youth wing said police detained 25 protesters during the demonstration.

Chib said the organisation would fight to ensure that voters whose names had been removed from the electoral rolls or wrongly marked as dead were added back. "Whoever has had their name struck off the electoral roll or has been declared dead, we demand that their name be included. We will ensure their names are added," he said.

The IYC has been seeking Kumar's resignation, alleging that the SIR process has raised serious questions about the Election Commission's functioning and the exclusion of eligible voters. "When the credibility and impartiality of the Election Commission are being questioned, the answer cannot be to shut down the streets and silence the protesters. The answer must be transparency, accountability and democratic dialogue," Chib said.

He also accused the government of restricting the right to protest, saying Delhi Police denied the organisation permission to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar despite requests made since September 25. Welcoming the Supreme Court's observations on restrictions imposed to prevent protests, Chib said demonstrators had a right to raise their concerns. "They can put up barricades, deploy police and deny permissions, but they cannot put barricades around the voice of India's youth," he said.

Security has been stepped up across Lutyens' Delhi ahead of a planned protest by the Cockroach Janta Party on October 10. While hearing a plea against the closure of 57 metro stations in the national capital and the cancellation of trains to Delhi in view of the protest, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to ensure there was no "complete prohibition" on the movement of metro services and trains coming to Delhi on October 10, saying everything could not be brought to a halt. The court said law enforcement agencies could restrict unruly movement, but citizens should not be unduly harassed.

The protest by the IYC centred on its demand that names it said were wrongly removed during the electoral roll revision be restored, even as the wider debate over protest curbs and public movement in the national capital continued ahead of another planned demonstration.