India detains ‘cockroach’ movement leaders at Delhi protest site

Leaders of India’s “cockroach” youth movement have been detained on Tuesday after jumping barricades to enter a historic observatory in Delhi, chanting slogans demanding the resignation of the country’s election chief.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said its leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among around 20 volunteers who entered the Jantar Mantar observatory to “reclaim” it before being detained.

A CJP livestream showed about a dozen volunteers climbing over a gate and barricades, waving the Indian flag and chanting slogans before police moved in.

Delhi Police said on Monday that Jantar Mantar, a long-standing protest venue, was no longer an official protest site, and identified three new venues.

“You cannot denotify the resistance,” CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on X after the detentions.

The CJP and opposition groups have protested almost daily this month, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a revision of voter lists that critics say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

More than 130 million names have been removed from voter lists since the revision began last year, including people who have died, moved or could not be traced.

The Election Commission denies favouring any party and says voters who were wrongly removed can re-enrol.

Thousands joined an opposition march on Monday, after police detained thousands of protesters, including CJP leaders, over the weekend.