Police in the Indian capital have detained leaders of the countryâÂÂs youth-led âÂÂcockroachâ movement after they jumped barricades to enter a popular protest site in New Delhi while calling for the resignation of the countryâÂÂs chief election commissioner (CEC) over voter list revisions.
Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde were among about 20 volunteers who âÂÂsneakedâ into Jantar Mantar to âÂÂreclaimâ the popular protest site and were detained on Tuesday.
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CJP supporters and opposition parties have held protests nearly every day this month to demand CEC Gyanesh KumarâÂÂs â resignation over the revisions, which critics say favour Prime Minister Narendra ModiâÂÂs Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Thousands joined a protest march on Monday, after a clampdown âÂÂfoiled CJP plans for a weekend demonstration. Earlier, police detained thousands of protesters, including CJP leaders, over the weekend.
The Delhi Police announced on Monday that the Jantar Mantar open-air astronomical observatory was no longer designated an official protest site and that three new venues had been identified for demonstrations.
However, CJP leaders and supporters went ahead with their protest plan at the Jantar Mantar and were taken into custody.
âÂÂYou cannot denotify the resistance,â CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said â on X after their detention.
A video posted to his account â shows about a dozen volunteers jumping a gate and barricades to reach the site, where they waved the Indian flag and chanted slogans as police arrived and detained them.
The Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.
In an earlier post, Dipke said the governmentâÂÂs efforts to block the site would do nothing to deter their campaign.
âÂÂIf Modi thinks taking away Jantar Mantar will put an end to protests, he is mistaken. Jantar Mantar is not just a location but a spirit of resistance that nobody can ever take away,â he said.
The youth-led movement, which has mobilised â protests in recent months over a range of issues, is among the biggest political challenges to the BJP and Modi in his 12 â years in power.
The Election Commission has denied favouring any party with its revisions to the voter list, and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.