India’s opposition parties have held a protest demanding the rollback of a revision of the voter list in the eastern state of Bihar, where elections are scheduled for its legislature in November.
Hundreds of lawmakers and supporters began Monday’s protest from parliament and were confronted by police who stopped them from marching towards the Election Commission office in the capital, New Delhi. Police briefly detained dozens of lawmakers, including the leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi.
“This fight is not political but for saving the constitution,” Gandhi, who is an MP from the Indian National Congress party, told reporters after being detained.
“The truth is before the entire country,” he added.
More than 200 people took part in the protest, according to police officials quoted by the NDTV channel.
India’s opposition accuses the Election Commission of rushing through a mammoth electoral roll revision in the eastern state of Bihar, saying the exercise could render vast numbers of citizens unable to vote.
Gandhi last week said the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is an “institutionalised chori [theft] to deny the poor their right to vote”.
The revision of nearly 80 million voter registrations
The revision affecting nearly 80 million voters involves strict documentation requirements from citizens, triggering concerns it could lead to the exclusion of vulnerable groups, especially those who are unable to produce the paperwork required to prove their citizenship.
Some of the documents required include birth certificates, passports and matriculation records.
Critics and opposition leaders said they are hard to come by in Bihar, where the literacy rate is among the lowest in India. They said the exercise will impact minorities the most, including Muslims, and bar them from voting.
India does not have a unique national identity card. The widely used biometric-linked identity card, called Aadhaar, is not among the documents listed by the Election Commission as acceptable proof for the electoral roll revision.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called the opposition leaders’ protest a “well-thought-out strategy” to create a “state of anarchy”, the NDTV reported.
