Rahul Gandhi detained in India voter-list protest

Indian police briefly detained opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday during a protest march demanding the resignation of the country's election chief over a large-scale revision of voter lists.

An AFP reporter saw Gandhi, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress Party, standing on a police barricade and waving the national flag. Officers detained him and other lawmakers but released them soon after.

Opposition members had begun marching from parliament toward the Election Commission of India's headquarters but were stopped by a heavy police presence. Gandhi and his lawmaker sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra later stayed inside public radio offices next to the commission.

Opposition politicians accuse the election commission of acting at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Critics also say the voter-list revision has disproportionately affected marginalised and minority communities, especially Muslims.

The Election Commission of India has rejected allegations of wrongdoing and says the revision is meant to ensure accurate electoral rolls. Modi's party has also defended the drive.

The protest is part of a wider campaign reignited by a report last month in The Indian Express. The newspaper reported that two of the election commission's three members had formally objected at least 14 times to key decisions linked to the revision and that 130 million citizens' names had been deleted since the exercise began in 2025.

India's Supreme Court on Monday ordered the government and the election body to explain decisions linked to the revision exercise. Another hearing is expected next week.