5,000 held in Delhi anti-CEC protests

More than 5,000 people, including four former chief ministers Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Manik Sarkar of Tripura and CJP chief Abhijeet Dipke, were arrested during a protest against the polls body chief of India in New Delhi on Saturday.  
Security forces locked down parts of the capital to thwart the demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.     
Thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the city, mobile internet services were suspended in the central business district and dozens of metro stations and markets were shut as authorities moved to stop a rally organised by the Cockroach movement.
The protest was aimed at Gyanesh Kumar over a revision of voter lists that critics say disproportionately benefits Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The movement had planned to gather thousands of people at Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in central Delhi. But the area was sealed off by security forces before the demonstration began.
However, small protests broke out elsewhere in the city, including at a popular crafts market and the memorial to freedom movement leader Mahatma Gandhi, with protesters shouting slogans demanding Kumar's resignation.
"Long live the revolution," some young protesters chanted in central Delhi as police chased them and dragged scores of others into buses to be taken away, even as more arrived, a Reuters witness said.
"This is violating the rights of the people and the country will not tolerate this anymore," Yogendra Solanki told Reuters as police escorted him away.
Some opposition lawmakers, popular youtuber Dhruv Rathee, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) senior leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka, and All India Students’ Association President Neha Bora were also arrested when their flight from Mumbai landed in Delhi, the group said in a statement.  

The INDIA bloc was gearing up for a mega protest on Monday, sources said. This comes as the crackdown in Delhi continued on Saturday.
India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called on demonstrators on Saturday to keep up protests against alleged misconduct by the election commission despite a heavy security crackdown. 
"Youth of India, I am proud of you. Keep protesting. We are standing with you," Gandhi, a senior leader of the Congress party, said in a statement after police detained hundreds of protesters in New Delhi.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk has warned that he may go on a hunger strike or undertake a foot march if leaders detained ahead of the CJP protest in Delhi are not released by Sunday.
Describing the situation in India as an “undeclared emergency”, Wangchuk said he had earlier appealed for unity and peace ahead of the protest but had not imagined that leaders associated with the movement would be arrested. 
Television footage showed Dipke challenging officers who approached him on board the aircraft.
"I have come to be arrested, arrest me ... I am not afraid of you guys," he said.
"No, this is not an arrest," one officer replied. "Please cooperate."
The movement condemned what it called the "authoritarian detention" of its leaders, demanded their immediate release and said the protest would continue regardless.
Representatives of two digital news outlets said police briefly detained four of their reporters while they were covering the demonstrations. A Reuters journalist was also detained briefly before being released.
Some lawyers protesting outside the Supreme Court were also picked up and later freed, according to the president of the court's bar association.
There was no immediate comment from police on the detentions.
Across the sprawling capital of about 20 million people, security forces mounted checkpoints on major roads and at city entry points. Police officers boarded buses searching for protesters, while vehicles were subjected to inspections.
Barricades and concrete blocks stopped traffic, while anti-riot vehicles mounted with tear gas guns were stationed on key routes.
The demonstrations represent one of the most serious tests yet for Modi, stemming from allegations that election authorities improperly revised voter rolls ahead of recent state polls.
Protests have gathered momentum since last week, when the Indian Express newspaper reported that two election commissioners had questioned and disagreed with Kumar over revisions that removed roughly 130 million names from voter lists.
Kumar has not commented but the Election Commission and the BJP have denied allegations of wrongdoing.
Saturday's restrictions showed Modi's government had "officially waged war against its own people", KC Venugopal, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party said.

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