Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was among dozens of lawmakers temporarily detained by police in New Delhi on Monday following a protest against perceived electoral malpractice.

Around 300 opposition parliamentarians, including Gandhi, marched towards the Election Commission headquarters, jumping barricades and shouting that recent elections had been "stolen."

They claim that electoral rolls in key states have been altered to the benefit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with more to come.

"This fight is not political; this fight is to save the constitution," Gandhi told reporters as he and others were taken to a nearby police station. "We want a clean, pure voters' list."

Does electoral revision risk disenfrachising Indian Muslims?

Monday's demonstration came after a decision by the Election Commission to carry out a large-scale revision of the electoral roll in the northern state of Bihar, which the opposition say could render millions of citizens unable to vote.

The process requires voters to submit official documentation such as birth certificates, passports and matriculation records, which critics say could be hard to come by for many in Bihar, one of the poorest parts of India where literacy rates are among the lowest in the country.

Bihar is also home to a significant Muslim minority (around 17.7% according to the 2023 census) who opposition lawmakers fear could be particularly disenfranchised ahead of state elections later this year.

A similar exercise in the northeastern state of Assam in 2019 left nearly two million people — many of them Muslims — at risk of statelessness.

Modi's BJP backs electoral roll changes

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Modi's BJP has backed the revision, arguing that it is necessary to update new voters and delete the names of those who may have died or moved to other states.

The Election Commission said the changes were needed to avoid the "inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants" — shorthand in the context of Bihar for undocumented Muslims who may have arrived from neighboring Bangladesh.

The BJP said opposition parties were trying to create a "state of anarchy" by sowing seeds of doubt about the electoral process. "They are in a state of bankruptcy because of their continuous losses," said Federal Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery