India's opposition set to hold mega rally seeking election chief's resignation

Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather in the Indian capital, Delhi, for a mega opposition rally, seeking the resignation of chief election commissioner and electoral reforms.

The rally, called by the main opposition Congress party, will begin around noon at the famous Ramlila Maidan grounds, with leaders claiming a million people could attend.

Several top leaders of the Congress-led INDIA alliance have said they would attend and the influential Gen Z-led pressure group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has also pledged support.

The rally comes amid growing criticism of a voter-list revision exercise that has removed 130 million names from the draft rolls across India.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) says the exercise is aimed at updating the voters' list by purging names of people who have died or moved away from their registered addresses.

But opposition parties allege that the exercise - known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) - could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by removing eligible voters from the rolls. They accuse the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the BJP of "vote chori (theft)". Both the BJP and the ECI have denied the allegations.

The controversy intensified in September when The Indian Express newspaper in its investigation, external reported that the CEC, Gyanesh Kumar, made key decisions related to the exercise without the agreement of the two other election commissioners, who had raised objections on more than a dozen occasions.

The Election Commission said differences of opinion were normal in any institution and did not affect its functioning.

Kaynak: BBC News World RSS (Açık Basın / Haber Servisi)