Delhi braces for 'cockroach' protest with massive security deployment

• Tens of thousands of security forces deployed in Delhi for a youth-led protest.
• Protesters demand electoral reforms and resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
• Authorities denied protest permission due to late notice and procedural violations.
• Election Commission and BJP deny allegations of voter list manipulation.
• Mobile internet suspended and metro stations shut in protest areas.
• Over 30,000 police and paramilitary personnel deployed.

Central Delhi was sealed off on Saturday, with thousands of police and paramilitaries on patrol, metro stations shut, mobile internet suspended, and markets closed to guard against a youth protest demanding India's chief election officer quit.

The protest, called by the 'Cockroach' youth movement, hopes to draw thousands of demonstrators who want Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign over a revision of voter lists that critics say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

Touted by the organisers as a "Save Democracy" protest, it aims to be the biggest of the demonstrations launched last week after the Indian Express newspaper reported that Kumar's deputies had questioned and disagreed with him over the revision process that saw some 130 million voter names removed. Opposition parties have long alleged that the government is trying to fix voter lists to its advantage.

Kumar has not commented, but the Election Commission and the BJP have denied the allegations. The BJP says Modi's popularity and India's economic growth are key reasons for its electoral dominance and that opposition parties are misleading the country as they are unable to win elections.

The protesters, led by the self-named 'Cockroach Janta Party' (CJP), which began as an online satire, planned to gather at Jantar Mantar, a site designated for protests by authorities in the heart of New Delhi.

Delhi Police said on Friday that they had not given permission for the protest as the request did not come on time and CJP had violated undertakings given during previous protests. Police also said protesters would face the force of the law if they violated the ban. CJP leaders rejected the police decision and said they would go ahead with the protest as it was their fundamental right.

In a bid to thwart protesters arriving in Delhi, several long-distance trains to the city were cancelled on Friday and 57 metro stations shut. Mobile internet services in a radius of 4 km of the protest area were ordered suspended from Friday night to Saturday night.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and other Members of Parliament have also protested in Delhi regarding the issue.