The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has called for a protest march to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on October 10 demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, said it would proceed with the demonstration even if authorities denied permission for the gathering.

Speaking to ’ Srirupa Goswami, CJP co-convener Ashutosh Ranka said, “We’ll do a march. Wherever they stop us, we’ll sit…that place becomes Jantar Mantar. And until and unless they allow us to go in, we’ll not get up. They can, of course, arrest us, beat us up. That they can keep doing, but we are very clear that the protest will be done at Jantar Mantar, which is the designated protest site in Delhi.”

The October 10 protest will be the CJP’s second major demonstration at Jantar Mantar after July when its members staged a sit-in for over a month demanding the resignation of then Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak issue. Pradhan subsequently stepped down.

Story continues below.
Subscribe to see fewer ads.

Ranka also claimed that he and other CJP leaders, including founder Abhijeet Dipke and Saurav Das, could be arrested before the protest. “That’s what multiple sources from IB, Delhi Police, senior journalists, people high up in the ladder have told us. They [the government] want to stop us anyhow. But what they are forgetting is that while three of us happen to be the faces of CJP, the CJP is way more than what Dipke, Saurav, and me are,” he added.

A challenge to Amit Shah

Asked how the CJP planned to prepare for a possible crackdown on its proposed October 10 demonstration, especially in light of the mass detentions following the All India Students’ Association protest in Delhi, Ranka said, “Is baar lathi charge hua…toh is baar seedha Amit Shah pe baat jayegi. Is baar seedha Amit Shah ka resignation maanga jayega. (This time, if there is a lathi charge, then the matter will go straight to Amit Shah. This time, we will directly demand Amit Shah’s resignation).”

Pointing out that the Union Home Minister “is directly the person controlling Delhi Police, and orders like these can’t come without his consent”, Ranka added, “So, he better make sure that if he’s asking Delhi Police to do lathi charge, he should be ready for us going after him.”

‘EC not independent anymore’

Hitting out at the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI), Ranka said, “They are openly manipulating elections, that is the fundamental root of a strong democracy. Elections have been compromised in this country, Election Commission is not independent anymore, so civil disobedience is what we are going ahead with and what we will keep doing till our demands are met.”

Story continues below this ad

Protests against Kumar have intensified across the country, including in Delhi, over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. An investigation published on September 23 found that two election commissioners in the three-member ECI had recorded objections—14 times in 10 months—to steps taken by Kumar.

Ranka reiterated the CJP’s demand for Kumar’s resignation, saying: “Gyanesh, beta tumse na ho payega”, loosely translated as “Gyanesh, you won’t be able to pull this off.”