CJP Backs INDIA Bloc Rally, Seeks CEC’s Resignation

• CJP backs the INDIA bloc’s November 1 rally in Delhi.
• Outfit renews demand for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
• Delhi Police clears the Ramlila Maidan rally with conditions.
• Election Commission maintains that SIR decisions were lawful and unanimous.

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 29th Oct: The CJP backs INDIA bloc rally campaign gained momentum on Wednesday after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) extended support to the Congress-led Opposition’s November 1 rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. The youth-led outfit also renewed its demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke shared the organisation’s statement on X with the message, “Nation above all!” The statement argued that democracy rests on the principle that citizens choose their government, rather than governments deciding who gets to vote.

The CJP alleged that the SIR process had undermined public trust in the Election Commission and said Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation was necessary to restore confidence in the institution. It also pledged support to organisations campaigning for free and fair elections.

The endorsement comes after weeks of parallel campaigns by the CJP and Congress against the Chief Election Commissioner. The CJP had held a protest in Delhi on October 10, which Congress did not join, citing its own nationwide agitation. Several other opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Left parties, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), supported the CJP’s protest. The Aam Aadmi Party and the DMK have also backed the outfit.

Dipke has maintained that the CJP would remain outside party politics, while acknowledging common ground between its campaign and the INDIA bloc’s protests. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has similarly spoken of different protests coming together around shared concerns.

The CJP’s campaign has also drawn attention to the arrests of its leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde after they attempted to enter Jantar Mantar, which had been denotified as a protest site. Das and Ranka were released from Tihar Jail after seven days after submitting written undertakings not to organise protests there until the site is lawfully denotified. Congress leaders criticised the arrests.

The November 1 rally has received a no-objection certificate from Delhi Police, subject to conditions, for a programme scheduled between 10 am and 5 pm. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has asked party MPs to remain in Delhi from October 30 to November 1, while Congress MP Jebi Mather has said the rally was decided after consultations with INDIA bloc parties.

The rally has also triggered a political dispute over its date. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Rahul Gandhi of choosing November 1 to hurt the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, while claiming some INDIA bloc parties wanted the event rescheduled. Gandhi responded on X by thanking the BJP and its allies for publicising the rally.

The latest agitation intensified following a September 23 media report that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions on SIR taken through the Chief Election Commissioner. The Election Commission has maintained that its decisions on the revision were lawful and unanimous.

Dipke founded the CJP on May 16 as a satirical outfit after remarks by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant during a May 15 hearing were interpreted as comparing unemployed youth to cockroaches. The Chief Justice later clarified that he was referring to people using fake degrees. The group subsequently turned its attention to alleged electoral fraud, an issue Rahul Gandhi has raised for the past two years.