NEW DELHI — India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the Election Commission of undermining voters’ rights and the country’s electoral process.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on Thursday that Kumar must resign within 48 hours. The group described the Chief Election Commissioner as a major threat to India’s democracy, while alleging irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls. These allegations are claims by the CJP and have not been established as fact.
The demand follows reports of disagreements within the Election Commission over aspects of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. According to reports, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections on 14 occasions over a 10-month period concerning issues including voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, and electoral-roll systems.
The CJP has also launched an “Election Commission Thik Karo” campaign and called for a freeze on upcoming elections while demanding changes to the voter-roll revision process. The movement says its campaign is aimed at protecting voting rights, particularly amid concerns over names being excluded from electoral rolls.
On Friday, Dipke announced that the group would begin a nationwide protest from Mumbai on October 2 if Kumar does not resign by September 26. He said the demonstrations would subsequently be taken to other cities across India.
The planned demonstrations could place further public attention on the Election Commission and the ongoing debate over electoral-roll revisions. The CJP’s action also comes after earlier youth-led protests that helped bring the group greater public attention, making its latest campaign another significant test of its ability to mobilise supporters nationwide.
