New Delhi: Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Friday issued a fresh ultimatum to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, demanding his resignation by Saturday. Dipke warned that the party would launch a nationwide agitation to “save democracy” from Mumbai on Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) and subsequently expand the protests to cities across India.
“If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign by tomorrow, CJP will begin its nationwide protest from Mumbai on 2 October, and take it to cities across India. This Gandhi Jayanti let’s pledge to save democracy.,” Dipke said in his X post.
On Thursday, the CJP threatened a nationwide agitation if the CEC does not resign within 48 hours. Launching a scathing attack on Kumar over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, called him an “anti-national”.
Apart from the CEC’s resignation, the CJP also called for criminal proceedings against him. It even demanded that the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls be frozen and the repeal of the 2023 law governing the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.
A political controversy broke out following an Indian Express report highlighting alleged differences within the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. According to the report, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised concerns over the deletion of names from electoral rolls and objected to the Commission’s decision-making process on 14 occasions in recent months.
Responding to the report, the Election Commission maintained that differences of opinion are a routine part of institutional deliberations. It further asserted that all orders issued over the past year were based on unanimous decisions taken by the full Commission.
The Opposition has slammed the Narendra Modi government and he CEC , reiterating its “vote chori” allegations.
However, Election Commission officials maintained that all decisions concerning the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls were taken unanimously.