India | Marching separately for a common goal

On October 10, police forces arrested supporters of the opposition alliance “India Block” (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) in Srinagar, Kashmir. The protesters demanded the resignation of India's chief electoral officer Gyanesh Kumar; The background is suspected irregularities in the electoral rolls. Photo: AFP/Tauseef Mustafa Normally, the chairman of a national electoral commission is a public figure, but even in his own country he is not even necessarily known by name to many people. It's different in India: Many people have now heard of Gyanesh Kumar, at least peripherally.

Since the beginning of October, the mass protests calling for the resignation or formal removal of the controversial head of the Commission have not stopped - but rather have increased in intensity from week to week. Kumar is largely responsible for the removal of over 130 million names from the voter rolls in the world's most populous country. That is almost a tenth of the total population of 1.4 billion - and in proportion to a comparatively young population, as many are not yet 18, a far larger proportion is among those of actual voting age.

It's not just the sheer number of deletions from the lists that raises many critical questions. But even more so is the fact that in areas with a large proportion of Muslims, indigenous people and other minorities, significantly more people were removed in percentage terms.

In the capital Delhi, even after the draft of the new list, almost one in three people previously listed there as eligible to vote was removed. In West Bengal, 8.4 million names were lost, and in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh alone, 20.4 million names were lost.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), as the review process is officially called in 30 Union states and Union territories, which started in June 2025, is primarily intended to sort out deceased people and correct incorrect data, for example due to moves.

On the street, the Cockroach People's Party (CJP), which was initially founded on the Internet and successfully forced the resignation of the former education minister in the Modi cabinet in July, has positioned itself at the head of the movement. It is supported primarily by student associations, but increasingly also by other parts of society.

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