Rahul Gandhi detained again as India's opposition targets election chief
Indian police detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka for a second straight day on Wednesday. They were trying to reach a Delhi protest site to demand that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign. Gandhi says the protests will go on until Kumar quits.
India's opposition took to the streets of New Delhi for a second day on Wednesday, and police detained its leaders again. Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in the lower house, was carried by officers to a police van, The Hindu reported. He was taken to a police station and released by 8 p.m.
Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other members of parliament were trying to reach Jantar Mantar, a protest site in central Delhi. Police stopped their buses. The leaders then sat in at a traffic circle a few hundred meters away. Priyanka lay on her back in the street, holding a copy of the Constitution, before women officers removed her, The Tribune reported.
The protest targets Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The opposition accuses him of "vote chori," or vote theft, to help the governing BJP.
"We are not going to stop protesting till Gyanesh Kumar resigns," Gandhi said. "There is nothing that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can do that will stop us." He called Kumar "not a legitimate Election Commissioner."
Gandhi said about 300 opposition lawmakers had tried to meet the election commissioners a day earlier and were blocked. Asked about a police case filed after Tuesday's protest, he said he already faces 45 such cases. "Every FIR is a medal for me," he said.
The fight centers on Form 6, which voters use to register. The Indian Express reported in July that the online form began asking whether applicants, or their parents or grandparents, were on the voter roll from the last special revision. The paper also reported that two of the three election commissioners objected on record to steps taken under Kumar.
On Monday, the Supreme Court said it had not approved any changes to Form 6. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant asked the Election Commission for records showing who made the changes, the Indian Express reported. The commission had said on Sept. 26 that the form would go back to its original version.
What we know: Opposition leaders were detained two days running and vow to keep protesting.
What we don't: What the Election Commission's records will show the court.
Where outlets agree The Hindu and The Tribune both report that police detained Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi for a second straight day as they headed to Jantar Mantar.
Where they differ The opposition says Kumar illegally changed Form 6 to help the BJP, while the Election Commission says the form is going back to its original version.