Indian opposition leaders detained over poll bill stir

The Delhi Police on Monday detained INDIA bloc leaders, including Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Trinamool Congress’ Sagarika Ghose and Shiv Sena (UBT’s) Sanjay Raut along with others, who were en route to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

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Leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Priyanka Gandhi, staged a protest march from Parliament to the ECI headquarters, opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections and raising allegations of “vote theft” during last year's Lok Sabha polls.

During the march, Akhilesh Yadav was seen jumping over a police barricade as Delhi Police attempted to stop Opposition MPs from proceeding further.

The election agency has denied the allegations and said it has ensured no eligible voter is “left behind.” It has also said the “intensive revision” is a routine update to ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls and is needed to avoid the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants.” According to the commission, some 49.6 million voters whose names were included in a similar exercise in 2003 are not required to submit any further documents. But that still leaves almost 30 million other voters potentially vulnerable. A similar roll revision of voters is scheduled to be replicated across the nation of 1.4 billion people.

Meanwhile, many were detained by the police while they tried to breach the barricades on the route to the ECI office.