New Delhi, Oct 15 Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Thursday urged people to join the “Lehra do Tiranga” march carrying the national flag at Central Park, Connaught Place, on Friday amid a stand-off with Delhi Police over demonstrations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council) said Central Park would remain shut on Friday while a Delhi Police officer pointed out that Connaught Place is not a designated site for protests, indicating yet another showdown with the demonstrators.
At a joint press conference held here along with student union representatives from the AISA, SFI, AISF, and political activists, including Prashant Bhushan, Prakash Raj, Anjali Bharadwaj and Nikhil Dey, among others, Dipke urged everyone to join the fight for the right to vote, stressing that ideological differences should be kept aside.
“I request all political parties and civil society groups to rise above ideology and come together. If the right to vote is not saved, democracy will not be saved,” Dipke said.
The CJP founder alleged that the government was protecting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid allegations of irregularities under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and pointed out that the nearly 13 crore deletions accounted for almost 14 per cent of the electorate.
The CJP leader pitted that against the backdrop of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, saying, “The margin of victory in 2024 was just 2 per cent. Over 13 crore voters deleted — around 14 percent.”
“Where 2 per cent is deciding the election, you are deleting 13 crore votes. What is this if not a setting?” he said.
The BJP won 240 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in 2024 with 36.56 per cent of the votes polled, while the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 293 seats to form the government and got around 43 per cent of the votes. The INDIA bloc parties put together polled around 40.6 per cent of votes.
The call for the march came after the arrest of CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, who were sent to five days of judicial custody on Wednesday after entering Jantar Mantar and raising slogans demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. The arrests came a day after the Union home ministry withdrew Jantar Mantar’s status as a designated protest site, prompting the outfit to challenge the order by returning to the venue with the national flag.
Delhi Police sources said heavy security will be in place in and around Connaught Place and Jantar Mantar ahead of the CJP’s proposed protest on October 16, with several companies of paramilitary forces already stationed in the national capital. Police will deploy personnel at strategic locations, erect barricades and regulate the movement of protesters and commuters to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident, a source said.
A senior police officer said Connaught Place is not a designated protest site.
“Jantar Mantar has been denotified as a designated protest site. Protesters can hold demonstrations at Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground or CBD Ground after obtaining the requisite permission,” the officer said.
The CJP’s agitation against Kumar began in Mumbai on October 2, when it launched a nationwide campaign alleging irregularities in electoral rolls and demanding the chief election commissioner’s resignation. The campaign moved to Delhi on October 10, when a planned protest at Jantar Mantar was met with a major police crackdown. Dipke, Das and Ranka were detained at the airport after arriving from Mumbai, while opposition leaders, activists and students were also detained during demonstrations across the Capital.
After the removal of Jantar Mantar’s designated status, the CJP continued to press for permission to hold its protest there. On October 13, Das, Ranka and other members entered the barricaded site carrying the national flag and were detained. The outfit has since announced the Connaught Place march, calling it a protest for voting rights and the right to demonstrate.
Protests against Gyanesh Kumar began in Delhi on October 2, when opposition leaders, student organisations and activists demonstrated against alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. Police detained several protesters over the next three days as demonstrators attempted to reach Jantar Mantar.
On October 6, INDIA bloc MPs marched towards the Election Commission headquarters demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation but were stopped by police barricades. The opposition followed this with a series of luncheon meetings and protests, including a march towards Jantar Mantar on October 7. On October 9, opposition leaders met President Droupadi Murmu to raise concerns over the SIR exercise.
The INDIA bloc parties also staged a march towards the Supreme Court on October 12, seeking to raise concerns over the revision exercise with the Chief Justice of India.
(PTI News)
