Authorities in New Delhi detained a number of young demonstrators as street-level tensions extended into a second consecutive day. The detentions occurred as protests over the removal of 130 million names from India's electoral rolls continued, and as activists held earlier — referred to by government opponents using a degrading insect comparison — were released from custody.

Police in New Delhi detained several protesters on Sunday who had gathered to demand the resignation of the country's election commissioner. Among those present, a number held membership in student organisations, while some bore visible signs of injury and were physically placed onto a bus by security personnel.

Crowds gathered in public spaces to call for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The campaign against him centred on a voter-list revision that opposition groups argue was structured in a manner favouring the Bharatiya Janata Party, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads.

Around noon, the crowd had dwindled to several dozen demonstrators voicing opposition to Kumar, at which point officers stepped in and detained those present. Heavy deployments of police and paramilitary units remained in place across the city, even as underground rail services resumed and mobile internet connectivity was restored.

More than 2,000 people were taken into custody on Saturday and movement across the city was restricted, as officials took measures ahead of planned demonstrations. Police confirmed that the bulk of those detained had been freed by the time Saturday night drew to a close.

Dhruv Rathee, an activist and content creator with a YouTube following exceeding 33 million, was among those held and subsequently freed after midnight. He disputed the official characterisation of the incident, asserting in a post on X that what occurred amounted to an abduction rather than a detention or arrest. Separately, Neha Bora, who heads the All India Students' Association at the national level, was also taken into custody on Saturday.

Opposition parties and other critics condemned the government's deployment of force against the demonstrators. A United Nations body separately urged authorities to uphold and protect the right to peaceful assembly. The foreign ministry characterised the UN statement as an intrusion into matters that fall within India's domestic jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court, convening at an atypically well-attended Sunday session, took note of the government's undertaking that lawyers and journalists would face no obstruction in carrying out their professional responsibilities. Lawyers who had assembled near the Supreme Court building to voice their opposition, together with several reporters — one of them on staff at a major wire service — were among those detained for a period on Saturday before being released.

Abhita Ruheja, held by authorities on Sunday, described the capital as having been placed under conditions resembling a lockdown and questioned whether such measures were consistent with democratic governance. She told reporters that those in power had been dismantling one protection after another and that the country was moving toward authoritarian rule.

A court ruling ordering the release of Abhijeet Dipke — founder of the movement known as "cockroach" — along with two other senior figures in the organisation coincided with the unfolding protests. Dipke and other leaders of the party, referred to as CJP, were detained when their plane landed in Delhi on Saturday, as the party made preparations to gather thousands of its supporters at the city's Jantar Mantar ground. A formal undertaking to preserve public order accompanied the release those individuals were granted, according to an official statement attributed to the CJP.

Among the political pressures facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi across his 12 years in office, the mobilisation of young people has drawn considerable attention. Over that period, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured repeated electoral victories while opposition parties, among them the Congress Party, were unable to mount a sustained competitive challenge.

Protests broke out at various points across India after a broadcaster's report in late September disclosed that two officials working under Kumar had filed internal complaints touching on voter-roll changes, enrolment processes, and the digital systems supporting elections. The Election Commission has described divergent views within internal deliberations as routine and has rejected any suggestion that it favours one party over another.

Figures drawn from Election Commission records and cited by the opposition indicate that roughly 130 million names were removed from voter rolls during the verification exercise — a total surpassing Japan's entire population — among them around 63 million people who had moved to different addresses and a further 30 million whose whereabouts could not be established.

Opposition parties contend that Muslim voters and other minority groups bear a disproportionate share of the voter-roll deletions, describing these as populations whose electoral preferences are seen as unlikely to align with the ruling party. Both the BJP and the Election Commission have pushed back against claims of manipulation. The BJP has alleged that rival political forces are deliberately seeking to discredit legitimate electoral procedures in ways that threaten democratic institutions.