Authorities in the Indian capital are deploying around 23,000 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel ahead of a nationwide protest at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, October 10, called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, sources said.
The CJP youth movement and opposition parties accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using a controversial revision of voter lists to fix them in its favour, in collusion with its appointees, including Kumar.
The Election Commission and the BJP deny the allegations. Kumar has not commented, reports NDTV.
The Union Home Ministry has approved 221 CAPF companies for deployment between October 8 and 12, on top of 110 further CAPF companies provided to Delhi Police.
They include 85 Central Reserve Police Force companies, 10 from the Sashastra Seema Bal, seven from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, seven from the Rapid Action Force and one from the Central Industrial Security Force.
Another 20,000 Delhi Police personnel will also be on duty.
By comparison, roughly 150 CAPF companies were deployed for the CJP’s July protest at Jantar Mantar, and 93 during the farmers’ protest.
Sources said all of Delhi’s borders will be under strict surveillance, with multi-layered barricading in place.
Police are likely to close every New Delhi Metro station and could shut markets if necessary.
Officials said Face Recognition System cameras will be installed across the capital, while a control room will monitor CCTV feeds. Railway stations and bus terminals will also be watched.
Section 163 of the BNSS, which empowers an executive magistrate to issue urgent orders to maintain public order, will be in force.
Sources said no protests or gatherings would be permitted.
Neighbouring states, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, have been asked to stay on alert.
CJP spokesperson Saurav Das announced the demonstration on Wednesday.
He told the media he would formally inform Delhi Police and cooperate with the authorities on security, law and order and traffic arrangements.
The announcement came as the INDIA bloc staged a widespread protest against the Election Commission in Delhi, where several leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi, were detained and later released.
Congress accused police of using “brute force” to briefly detain Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Vadra and other lawmakers as they tried to reach the Jantar Mantar protest site.
Delhi Police said the allegations were being used to “defame” the force.
Senior officer Shrishti Pandey told ANI that officers ensure “every kind of legal duty is followed and no illegal, unnecessary actions take place”.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the claims were “being levelled by an irresponsible, anarchist opposition”, adding they had “no base, not an iota of evidence”.
Opposition groups demonstrated for a third day on Thursday, protesting the police action against Congress leaders and pressing for Kumar’s resignation.
Opposition parties, their student units and the “Cockroach” movement have been holding near-daily rallies.
ANI visuals showed dozens of Congress supporters marching in the southern state of Telangana, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal held a similar demonstration in the eastern state of Bihar.
In Bengaluru, hundreds of CJP supporters protested, many holding posters reading “Every name counts, Every vote matters” and “Stop the Murder of Democracy”.
“I think voting right is the most basic point of democracy … People who actually want to vote, who actually care about the future of India, they are just being (denied) voting rights,” Khushi Shrivastava, a 22-year-old architecture student who attended the Bengaluru protest, told Reuters.
Opposition MPs will meet at a cafe around 1:45pm on Thursday to discuss Wednesday’s events and their strategy, and are likely to march to Rajghat afterwards.
The protests pose a new political challenge to Modi midway through his third term, months after similar CJP-led demonstrations forced his education minister to resign over exam paper leaks.
