Voter-Roll Protests Explained: What the October 10 Rally Wants

India’s voter-roll protests have entered their fourth day. Here is what the movement is about and what happens next.
The dispute centres on a nationwide voter-roll revision launched last year. The Election Commission says the exercise removes duplicate, deceased and ineligible voters. Protesters say it has disenfranchised millions of eligible voters.
The protesters allege the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. The Election Commission and the BJP deny the allegations. The Indian Express reported that the election chief’s own deputies raised concerns at least 14 times over the past ten months about the revision process.
The demands are clear: scrap the revision and the resignation of Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar. In Mumbai, Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led Sunday’s protest. In Delhi, police detained demonstrators for a third straight day.
An opposition alliance plans a march to the Election Commission office on Tuesday. The Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party has announced a major rally in Delhi on October 10.
The demonstrations are the latest in a series of youth-led challenges to the government, described as unprecedented in Modi’s 12 years in power.
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