Delhi Sealed as the Cockroach Party Marches Over Deleted Voters
Thousands of police and paramilitaries are deployed in central Delhi, 57 metro stations closed from Friday night, long-distance trains cancelled and mobile internet suspended within four kilometres of the protest area. The demand is the resignation of the chief election commissioner over a revision of the electoral roll that has removed more than 130 million names.
The Election Commission says the revision strips out duplicate and ineligible entries; critics say it has fallen disproportionately on marginalised and minority communities and favours the governing party. The protests escalated after a national newspaper reported that the commissioner’s two deputies had formally raised concerns at least fourteen times in ten months. Police refused permission for the rally and warned of “a forceful law enforcement response”; India’s Supreme Court said on Friday that some trains must still run and that blanket closure of metro stations was unlikely. The party’s chief Abhijeet Dipke: “The dictator would rather shut down the entire national capital and inconvenience millions of citizens than allow a peaceful protest at a designated protest site.” Neha Bora of the All India Students’ Association: “You can detain the people, you cannot detain the movement.” The party says at least ten thousand people have been detained nationwide, a figure its own claim and not independently confirmed. The movement began in May as online satire after a chief justice referred to unemployed young people as “cockroaches” and “parasites”, a characterisation he says was misquoted; in July it forced an education minister to resign over exam paper leaks. State elections follow in early 2027.