New Delhi: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his immediate resignation and warning of a nationwide agitation if he refuses to step down.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke accused Kumar of undermining the right to vote and alleged that the poll panel under him had allowed the government to decide who could be enrolled as a voter.
“To ensure free and fair elections, CEC Gyanesh Kumar must resign,” Dipke said.
“If within 48 hours Gyanesh Kumar doesn’t resign, the Cockroach Janta Party will start a nationwide agitation. We won’t step back till the time Gyanesh Kumar resigns,” he said.
The CJP said the proposed protest would be modelled on its June demonstration at Jantar Mantar, with Dipke later telling reporters that “Jantar Mantar 2.0 will definitely happen” if the CEC did not quit.
‘Biggest Anti-National’
Dipke described Kumar as “the biggest anti-national of this country” and said his continuance posed the “biggest threat to India’s democracy”.
“What did democracy mean in our country? Democracy meant that the people would elect the government. Since Gyanesh Kumar became the Chief Election Commissioner, the government has been deciding who will be allowed to vote and who will not. Is this democracy? What kind of definition of democracy is this? You have turned the entire concept of democracy upside down,” he said.
SIR Row & Reported Objections
The CJP’s attack comes as the Election Commission faces controversy over its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. A report says that over the past 10 months, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have objected to several parts of this exercise.
The report says the two commissioners formally objected on record at least 14 times. Their objections covered issues such as adding, deleting and restoring voters, changes to Form 6, and how electoral-roll data was handled.
But the Election Commission has denied any split in the three-member body. In a statement signed by all three commissioners, it said differences of opinion and written notes are normal, and all decisions, including on SIR, were taken unanimously.
13 Crore Names Deleted, Alleges Dipke
Dipke claimed that more than 13 crore votes were deleted in the SIR exercise and asked if this was done to widen the gap between the ruling combine and the Opposition, as reported by The New Indian Express.
“In total, more than 13 crore votes have been deleted. This is not a small number. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the margin between the opposition and the ruling party (NDA) was just 2%. Deleting 13 crore votes is equivalent to deleting roughly 13% to 14% of the total votes,” he said.
“Is Gyanesh Kumar deleting them intentionally to widen that 2% gap so that they never lose office? Why is this being done? What was the need to delete so many votes?” he asked.
Opposition Leaders ‘hit’ By Deletions
He said the deletions hurt Opposition leaders and parties, naming Mamata Banerjee, M.K. Stalin, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan.
“The BJP failed to secure a majority in the 2024 election. The panic button was pressed when they fell short of that majority. They had come down to 240 seats after raising the slogan of ‘400 paar’. After that, they realised that the mood of the country was shifting and that regional forces were emerging very strongly,” Dipke said.
He claimed leaders and parties that campaigned together in 2024 were later defeated one after another.
“In West Bengal, 50,000 votes were deleted from Mamata Banerjee’s constituency, and she lost by around 15,000 votes. In M.K. Stalin’s constituency, 1 lakh votes were deleted, and he lost by around 45,000 votes. In Delhi, 40,000 votes were deleted from Arvind Kejriwal’s constituency, and he lost by around 4,000-5,000 votes,” he alleged.
Dipke also alleged that the poll panel’s handling of party disputes and symbols helped the BJP, citing the split in Uddhav Thackeray’s outfit.
“Uddhav Thackeray’s party was split, and its election symbol was taken away by the Election Commission. The Election Commission very cleverly and proactively took away that election symbol and gave it to a proxy party, which you could call a shell company,” he alleged.
He blamed Kumar for what he called election “rigging” and said the CEC had “proactively ensured that the BJP remains in power”.
‘Is This Democracy?’
Dipke questioned whether the alleged removal of Opposition figures fit with democratic norms.
“Pinarayi Vijayan would have won, but due to the deletion of votes in Kerala, he did not become the Chief Minister. Was this move designed solely to eliminate strong opposition figures?” he said.
“Now, we have no particular affinity for the opposition or any specific party. But in a democracy, if you wipe out the entire opposition, can it still be called a democracy? Is it a free and fair election?” Dipke asked.
He said the CJP’s demand for Kumar’s resignation was rooted in its call for free and fair polls and repeated that the outfit would continue its proposed nationwide agitation till the CEC resigned.
The CJP’s move comes a day after it said it would focus on electoral reforms and the functioning of the Election Commission after the controversy over reported objections within the poll panel.
Earlier, the group had indicated a campaign to “fix” the Election Commission and had also demanded a freeze on upcoming elections and a rollback of the SIR exercise.
