Thousands rally in New Delhi demanding India's election chief resign

Thousands of people rallied in New Delhi on Sunday to demand that India's election chief resign, Al Jazeera reports. Hundreds of police, some with batons and shields, were deployed around the rally site.

The protest is over a revision of the country's voter lists. The Guardian says Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi is leading the march and rally. Security forces, with riot control vehicles, surrounded the site earlier in the day, and authorities warned of traffic diversions.

The opposition told The Guardian it expected hundreds of thousands of participants. It described the event as a major challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party. Only "thousands" are reported so far by Al Jazeera, and no outlet gives a confirmed turnout figure.

France 24 says the main opposition parties and a youth-led group called the Cockroach Janta Party are making the demand. It says critics argue the revisions favour Modi's party. That is the critics' claim, not an established fact.

BBC News says the rally follows growing protests over the exercise, which it says is feared to leave 130 million voters off the rolls. The reports do not say who produced that figure. None of them include a response from the election authority or the government.