Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Friday arrived at the Shivaji Park in Mumbai as the outfit kicked off the second phase of its nationwide protest campaign, demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Mumbai Police beefed up security at the protest site ahead of the stir, which is being held near Gate 6 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park. However, during the CJP’s agitation, a parallel protest was also launched against the outfit, where slogans of ‘Abhijeet Dipke go back’ were raised.
A still from the protests at Shivaji Park
Celebrities such as Shabaza Azmi and singer Vishal Dadlani also joined the demonstration. Azmi, while attending the gathering, said protesting was a citizen’s right, while underlining that people should raise their voices when their names are removed from electoral rolls.
Backdrop of CEC’s resignation demand
The protest focuses on allegations surrounding the Election Commission’s handling of the SIR exercise. The controversy gained further steam after an investigative report by ‘The Indian Express,’ which mentioned that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over a 10-month period concerning decisions and procedures associated with the revision exercise.
Dipke claimed that the names of close to 13 crore voters have been eradicated from electoral rolls since 2024. He has linked the alleged deletions to the relatively narrow voter-share gap between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition INDIA bloc in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, contending that large-scale changes to electoral rolls could influence election outcomes.
However, the EC has shunned the allegations. On Saturday, it said that key decisions, including the ones concerning the SIR, were taken unanimously by the three-member commission.
Dipke vows to continue stir
During an interaction at the Mumbai Press Club, Dipke pressed for Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and said the CJP would keep the agitations in force if the CEC did not step down. He asserted, “Gyanesh Kumar is a traitor,” while voicing demand for criminal action against him. He also questioned the Mumbai Police’s decision to deny permission for the proposed protest.
CJP founder Dipke
He further drew a comparison with political rallies at Shivaji Park, questioning why his outfit should not be permitted to demonstrate at the venue. He added that he was not afraid of imprisonment and vowed to return to protest repeatedly.
The campaign is expected to continue across several states and cities through October, eventually culminating in a demonstration at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.