India's opposition parties protest against a controversial electoral roll revision

NEW DELHI (AP) — India ’s opposition parties held a protest Monday calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states, where key elections are scheduled in November, and warning it could lead to voter disenfranchisement.

Hundreds of lawmakers and supporters began the protest from parliament and were confronted by police, who stopped them from marching towards the election commission office in the capital, New Delhi. Police briefly detained some lawmakers, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.

India's opposition accuses the Election Commission of India of rushing through a mammoth electoral roll revision in eastern Bihar state, saying the exercise could render vast numbers of citizens unable to vote. The revision of nearly 80 million voters involves strict documentation requirements from citizens, triggering concerns it could lead to the exclusion of vulnerable groups, especially those who are unable to produce the paperwork required to prove their citizenship.

Some of the documents required include birth certificates, passports and matriculation records. Critics and opposition leaders say they are hard to come by in Bihar, where the literacy rate is among the lowest in India. They say the exercise will impact minorities the most, including Muslims, and disallow them from voting.

India does not have a unique national identity card. The widely used biometric-linked identity card, called “Aadhaar,” is not among the documents listed by the poll body as acceptable proof for the electoral roll revision.

The election agency has denied the allegations and said it has ensured no eligible voter is “left behind." It has also said the “intensive revision” is a routine update to ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls and is needed to avoid the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants."

According to the commission, some 49.6 million voters whose names were included in a similar exercise in 2003 are not required to submit any further documents. But that still leaves almost 30 million other voters potentially vulnerable. A similar roll revision of voters is scheduled to be replicated across the nation of 1.4 billion people.

Bihar is a crucial election battleground state where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has only ever governed in a coalition. Poll results there could likely impact the balance of power in India's Parliament, where Modi's government relies on coalition partners, including a regional party from Bihar.

Modi's BJP has backed the revision and said it is necessary to update new voters and delete the names of those who have either died or moved to other states. It has also claimed the exercise is essential to weed out undocumented Muslim immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.

Critics and opposition leaders have warned that the exercise is similar to that of a controversial 2019 citizenship list in India's eastern Assam state, which left nearly 2 million people at risk of statelessness. Many of those left off the final citizenship list were Muslims. They have been declared “foreigners” and some of them faced long periods of detention.

Gandhi, the opposition leader, made public last week his Congress Party's analysis from southern Karnataka state that alleged nearly 100,000 votes cast for an assembly seat in the 2024 general election were fraudulent. India's election commission dismissed his claims.

“A clean voter roll is imperative for free and fair elections,” Gandhi said Sunday in a post on X.

Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra , center bottom, sits on the road with other parties lawmakers during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Samajwadi Party lawmaker Akhilesh Yadav waves as he is detained and taken away in a police van during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Various opposition parties lawmakers try to break a police barricade during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, center, sits with other parties lawmakers on the road during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo)

Congress party leader and leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi, center, and other parties lawmakers are stopped by police during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Lawmakers from various opposition jump over a police barricade during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra , center bottom, sits on the road with other parties lawmakers during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Samajwadi Party lawmaker Akhilesh Yadav waves as he is detained and taken away in a police van during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Various opposition parties lawmakers try to break a police barricade during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, center, sits with other parties lawmakers on the road during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo)

Congress party leader and leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi, center, and other parties lawmakers are stopped by police during a protest calling for the rollback of a controversial revision of the voter list in one of the country’s poorest states where key elections are scheduled in November, in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany's troubled economy returned to modest growth last year after two years of falling output, official figures showed, as hopes rise that government spending on bridges, rail lines and defense may help end years of stagnation.

The expansion in gross domestic product of 0.2% for 2025 was fueled by stronger consumer and government spending while exports sagged under the weight of more restrictive U.S. trade policy under President Donald Trump, the German Federal Statistical Office said on Thursday.

That follows shrinkage of 0.5% in 2024 and 0.9% in 2023.

“Germany’s export business faced strong headwinds owing to higher U.S. tariffs, the appreciation of the euro and increased competition from China,” statistical office head Ruth Brand said in a statement accompanying the statistical release.

Expectations have risen for Germany to finally see stronger growth this year as the government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz implements plans to increase spending on infrastructure to make up for years of underinvestment. Meanwhile defense spending is rising due to a perceived higher level of threat from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Germany has endured a period of extended stagnation following the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher energy costs following the war in Ukraine and increasing competition from China in key German specialties such as autos and industrial machinery have held back an economy that is heavily focused on exports. Then came Trump's imposition of higher tariffs, or import taxes, on goods from the European Union. The slow growth has also exposed long-term structural issues such as excessive bureaucracy and lack of skilled labor. A stronger euro has also made exports less competitive on price.

A group of leading economists has predicted 0.9% growth for this year but said that forecast could be at risk if the increase in government spending is unleashed more slowly than expected.

The German economy grew 0.2% in the last three months of 2025, according to available preliminary data.

FILE - Containers are piled up in the harbor in Hamburg, Germany, on Oct. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, file)