CJP targets Election Commission, says ready for 3-month stir; AAP, Left lead charge in Delhi - The Indian Express

Thousands joined protests in Mumbai and Delhi on Friday to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar amid questions over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. While the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) led the protests in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, hundreds were detained in the national Capital as Left student outfits and civil society members tried to make their way to Jantar Mantar.

In Mumbai, CJP national convener Abhijeet Dipke was joined by Hindi film industry personalities such as actors Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, singer Vishal Dadlani, and director Vishal Bharadwaj. Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi was also in attendance.

Targeting the BJP-led Central government, Dipke said it was so “incompetent” that his outfit had to launch another protest within two months of the Jantar Mantar agitation against the NEET exam paper leak, which came to an end following the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister. “We won’t protest for three days, but for three months,” Dipke said.

The CJP leader criticised the SIR exercise and invoked Mahatma Gandhi, B R Ambedkar, and Jawaharlal Nehru to emphasise the importance of Constitutional rights and the right to vote. “If Gandhi is the soul of India, Ambedkar is the backbone, and Nehru the mind,” he said, adding that the agitation against the CEC would continue.

Dipke dared Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to send the protesters to jail. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray have a significant support base in the Dadar area, where Shivaji Park is located, and have extended support to the CJP’s protest programme.

CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka also targeted the Centre, asking if citizens who do not support the BJP should have their voting rights taken away. Dadlani sang “Mera rang de basanti chola” before modifying the lyrics to call on Gyanesh Kumar to step down.

Among those at the protest was 34-year-old Pune resident Kushal Gupte, who said he had travelled to Mumbai because he believes public trust in the electoral system has taken a hit. “The system has failed everyone and the trust in the Election Commission has been totally lost. To regain trust, Gyanesh Kumar should resign,” he said.

A teenager from Kurla in Mumbai, who was at the protest with her father and sister, said she was participating because of concerns about the future of democracy in the country and the rights of women and other vulnerable groups.

While the protest in Mumbai went ahead despite the police denying permission for the demonstration at Shivaji Park, in Delhi the police detained hundreds of protesters — around 700, according to the police — having refused permission to them to gather at Jantar Mantar. The police imposed prohibitory orders in the area, while Delhi Metro temporarily closed entry and exit at 12 stations in central Delhi.

Among those detained were Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi, and Sanjay Singh; Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha, AISA leader Neha Bora, Swaraj India member Yogendra Yadav, and activists from CPI(M)’s student outfit SFI and Congress’s student wing NSUI.

Before protesters started gathering in the morning, the police sealed off the area around the Parliament Street police station and Jantar Mantar. Bharadwaj arrived around 10.30 am, saying in a video message, “Protesting is our democratic right. But the police are telling us permission for the demonstration has not been granted… even though six days ago the AAP applied for permission here for a peaceful demonstration.” The police subsequently detained him.

In a video shared on X, Atishi said: “We were protesting peacefully at Jantar. The Delhi police picked AAP leaders and workers with barbarism and brutality.”

Over the next five hours, protesters arriving from Ashoka Road, Janpath, and Tolstoy Road were loaded into buses and taken to Fatehpur Beri and Badarpur police stations. By the time Bora arrived, flanked by Yogendra Yadav and RTI activist Nikhil Dey, hundreds had already been detained. The three were picked up — with four police officers carrying each of them — and loaded into a bus.

“The protest is against Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission. But there’s a larger context I feel. The resignation of CEC Gyanesh isn’t the only thing. People are upset with the SIR. This is a disenfranchisement of millions of voters,” said Pawan, a 36-year-old IT professional based in Andhra Pradesh who was at the demonstration.