New Delhi, Oct 15 Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Thursday accused the government of attempting to influence electoral outcomes through alleged voter deletions and asked whether the names of over 13 crore voters being struck off was a “setting”.
He and leaders of different student organisations also slammed the government over the treatment of those protesting against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar seeking his resignation and the alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
Addressing a press conference along with All India Students’ Association national president Neha Bora, Students’ Federation of India leader Aishe Ghosh, All India Students’ Federation national president Viraaj Devang and actor Prakash Raj among others, Dipke alleged that extraordinary restrictions have been imposed in the capital to prevent people from joining the protests.
The CJP and the students and youth organisations demanded Kumar’s immediate resignation, the release of CJP members Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das and all detained peaceful protesters, and an end to police brutality, alongside the restoration of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
“Former chief ministers, MPs, leaders of opposition, all were detained. For the first time in the history of India, the Railways was shut and metros were shut for Gyanesh,” Dipke said, questioning why the government was protecting the chief election commissioner.
“What is Gyanesh Kumar giving to Modi that he is ready to bring Delhi to a halt for him? Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are waging a war on their own countrymen, why,” he asked.
“Why is Gyanesh Kumar so important for Narendra Modi? Why shouldn’t we believe Gyanesh Kumar is making Narendra Modi win elections,” he questioned.
The CJP leader pitted this in 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 asked.
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 percent of the votes. The INDIA bloc parties put together polled around 40.6 percent of votes.
Dipke asked all political parties, civil society organisations, and citizens to join the “Lehra do Tiranga” march called by the CJP in Delhi’s Connaught Place on Friday.
“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,” he said.
Describing the slogan of ‘One Nation, One Election’ as a cover for a different political objective, he said, “‘One Nation, One Election’ was a slogan. The real intention is ‘One Nation, One Party, One Leader’.”
“(Narendra) Modi cannot be bigger than (Mahatma) Gandhi and (Jawaharlal) Nehru,” he added.
Bora alleged that the police had targeted journalists covering the protests, detaining them despite their press credentials and snatching their cameras.
“Police, instead of maintaining law and order, crack down on the public. This is a classic example of what we have seen,” she said.
“The whole movement against Gyanesh Kumar is proof that this struggle for the right to vote is not of any individual, any political party, banner or flag – it is a movement alive in the poor homes of India, in different corners, on roads,” she said.
“You send the voice supporting the right to vote to jail. When you drag common people, you are dragging those 13 crore people,” she said.
Ghosh urged citizens to unite to defend democracy, saying she placed her faith in the people rather than the ruling BJP.
“Gyanesh has helped them win the whole country,” she alleged.
“We don’t have hopes with the BJP, we have hopes with our citizens. It is time for all of us to unite. The country for which Bhagat Singh fought and Gandhi sacrificed, we have to save this country,” she said.
Ghosh also referred to the treatment of the parents of Ankita Bhandari, a resort receptionist who was murdered in Uttarakhand in 2022, alleging that they had been dragged and treated brutally.
Criticising what she described as the impunity enjoyed by people accused of serious crimes, she said, “Rapists are being garlanded.”
The press conference was briefly disrupted when a reporter allegedly interrupted Bora while she was speaking and began shouting. He was subsequently escorted away.
Devang alleged that those who had never embraced the tricolour were now attacking it.
“Our comrades were walking in Connaught Place with the tricolour and have all been detained. When did holding the tiranga become a crime,” he asked.
Actor and activist Prakash Raj said around 200 organisations from across the country had gathered on Wednesday and alleged that there was an attempt to make Jantar Mantar disappear as a protest site.
“Our call was that the entire country would become Jantar Mantar. This fight belongs to the youth of the country,” he said, adding that every district and street would become a protest site.
Activist Anjali Bharadwaj alleged that the EC had not taken the decision on the SIR exercise and questioned the treatment meted out to protesters, particularly women.
“People are on the streets, the Opposition is on the streets. The kind of brutality with which they are being treated is shocking,” she said, alleging that women demanding action against police personnel were being harassed and cases were being filed against them.
She also claimed that women accounted for the largest number of deletions from electoral rolls and questioned whether the 2025 election involved electoral fraud or whether the alleged irregularities were linked to the SIR exercise.
(PTI News)
