Rahul Gandhi among opposition leaders detained during protest against India's election commission

(Patria) - Dozens of Indian opposition leaders were detained in New Delhi on Monday as they shouted slogans, jumped over barricades and marched to the Election Commission in a rare public protest against what they call electoral abuses, Reuters reported last night.

The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world's most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition's allegations could harm Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his eleven years in power.

About 300 opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, marched from parliament to the office of the independent election panel, but were stopped by police at a certain distance.

The protesters shouted slogans against the panel and Modi's government, saying the elections were being "stolen," and tried to cross barricades before being detained and taken away by bus.

"This fight is not political. This fight is for saving the constitution," Gandhi told reporters. "We want a clean, indisputable voter list."

Gandhi and the Congress party have claimed that voter lists in states where the party lost were corrupted, with voters' names deleted or included multiple times to rig the elections in favor of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Opposition parties have also criticized the election commission's decision to revise the voter list in the key northern state of Bihar just before state elections to be held later this year, saying the aim is to disenfranchise a large number of poor voters.

The BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the allegations.

The commission said that changes to voter lists are shared with political parties and that all complaints are thoroughly investigated. It also said that voter lists need to be revised to remove deceased voters or those who have moved to other parts of the country, among others.

The Congress party and its allies performed poorly in two state elections where they expected victory after an impressive showing in last year's parliamentary elections, in which the BJP lost its absolute majority and remained in power only with the help of regional parties.

The Congress party has also complained about electronic voting machines and said the counting process was not fair, which the election commission has rejected.

The BJP said opposition parties are trying to create a "state of anarchy" by sowing seeds of doubt in the electoral process.

"They are in a state of bankruptcy due to their continuous losses," federal minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters on Monday.