Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 28: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Wednesday extended support to the opposition INDIA bloc’s Sunday rally demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, accusing the poll body’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of undermining electoral democracy and raising concerns over the exclusion of eligible voters.
Saying “Gyanu must go,” the party said the CEC had lost the trust required to oversee free and fair elections and called for the Election Commission’s credibility and independence to be restored. In a statement, the CJP added that the fundamental principle of democracy was that people chose their government, not the other way around. It argued that the SIR exercise had undermined this principle by raising concerns over the removal of eligible voters from electoral rolls.
In its statement shared on social media, the CJP said the SIR had raised serious concerns over the possible exclusion of eligible voters, arguing that the Election Commission of India’s responsibility was to safeguard every citizen’s right to vote.
In the statement, the CJP also invoked the role of Dr BR Ambedkar in framing the Constitution, arguing that every adult citizen received an equal right to vote regardless of caste, religion, gender, education or economic background. The CJP said democracy depended on ensuring equal political representation and protecting every eligible citizen’s voting rights.
It said Dr Ambedkar, the former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other makers of the Constitution placed their faith in the people at a time when millions of Indians had never participated in an election. “Democracy could only succeed when every citizen had an equal say in deciding the country’s future. The principle was to bring more citizens into democracy rather than exclude them,” it said.
The CJP further argued that every government and constitutional institution must protect citizens’ equal political voice, irrespective of their social or economic standing. The party said the Election Commission’s responsibility was to protect every eligible citizen’s right to vote, not create obstacles to exercising it.
“The fundamental principle of democracy is that people get to choose their government, not that the government gets to choose its voters,” the party said, alleging that the SIR exercise had undermined public confidence in the electoral process.
In a post on X, the CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said, “Gyanu must go! The Cockroach Janta Party extends its support to the INDIA Bloc’s November 1 rally. Nation above all!” The outfit said the Election Commission was responsible for safeguarding the voting rights of every eligible citizen and should not create obstacles to exercising them. The CJP said it would support all organisations fighting for free and fair elections in the country. The statement ended with the slogans “Jai Bhim” and “Jai Hind”.
The endorsement comes ahead of the INDIA bloc’s planned rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on November 1, part of the Opposition’s campaign against alleged electoral irregularities and its demand for greater transparency in voter-list revisions.
The Delhi Police has granted conditional permission to the Congress to hold a rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday. On September 30, the INDIA bloc finalised a joint action plan over the SIR row, including rallies and ‘save democracy marches’, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge saying all parties agreed that elections should be held using ballot papers instead of EVMs.