Mumbai: Speaking at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Friday, October 2, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) convenor Abhijeet Dipke warned that the party would launch a fresh agitation in Delhi if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar did not step down.
“If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign, the Gen Z of the entire nation will go to Delhi. There will be Jantar Mantar 2.0,” Dipke said, calling for a “Chalo Delhi” campaign.
Calling out Home Minister Amit Shah for the alleged police brutality against Jantar Mantar protesters, he said, “Iss baar lathi chalaane ke orders mat dena… ek galti tumne kar di thi July 20 ko, bachchon pe lathicharge order kar ke (Do not order lathicharge this time; you made that mistake on July 20).”
He went on to add that if Shah makes the same mistake again, the next resignation would be his.
“Agar goondagardi karni hai toh gundey bano, Home Minister nahin (If you want to resort to goondaism, give up your Home Minister’s post),” he said.
Describing the Delhi Police as monsters, in contrast, he said the Mumbai Police was ‘cute’. Mumbai Police had been ordered to pick him up; instead, they “offered tea” and asked him to leave.
Dipke said the Narendra Modi-led central government was so “incompetent” that they had to launch another protest within two months of the Jantar Mantar agitation over the NEET leak issue.
He also dared Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to send the protesters to jail.
CJP leader Ajinkya Shinde called for the 2025 voter rolls to be frozen and sought the repeal of the 2023 law governing the appointment of election commissioners. He also demanded the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and sought criminal action against him.
Police deny CJP protesters beaten up
The protest comes in the wake of recent media reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions and orders related to the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls, some of which they said were issued without their knowledge.
At the protest site, memes, movie dialogues, and slogans set the tone. Protesters carried placards reading “Gyanu, Tujha Democracy Var Bharosa Nay Kay?”, “Gyanesh BRO, JUST RESIGN” and “Gaddaar Gyaanu Must Go”. Even CJP shared a tweet saying, “Gyanesh bro! Just resign ya”.
Some media reports said some CJP protesters were beaten up by workers associated with the Bajrang Dal while they were leaving the Shivaji Park area after the protest. However, Mumbai Police has denied that any such incident took place. “The situation is peaceful, and the crowd has returned,” the Times of India quoted a police official as saying.
Support pours in
Sharing from its official X handle, CJP said, “Mumbai is up to something. Jai Maharashtra!” sharing visuals of hundreds of protesters gathered at the site.
In another post, it offered legal help to anyone detained during the protest. It said, “Hello cockroaches, the Mumbai legal team is all set.”
Senior actor Prakash Raj sent a video message via an X post. Wishing everyone a happy Gandhi Jayanti, he said, “…certain goons are trying to kill our citizenship, our democracy, through SIR. The youth of this country, the civil society, the cockroaches will not let this happen…”
Music composer Vishal Dadlani also joined the protest.
Actors Shabani Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah also joined the agitation. Dipke shared a video of Naseeruddin meeting him. In the video, Naseer can be heard thanking Dipke for what he was doing, even as Dipke tells the actor he’s a big fan of his.
Dipke also paid floral tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in South Mumbai to mark the birth anniversary of the father of the nation.
Not everyone’s happy with CJP protest
However, some locals were not happy with the situation the protest created. “The planned protest is disrupting the peace and daily life in our area. They are attempting to carry this out forcefully, and such protests should not be permitted in a residential zone,” a local said.
Elsewhere in the city, a group calling itself “Gen Next Mumbai” also staged a protest against the CJP. A protester accused Dipke of speaking about dismantling the Constitution and said the group had gathered for a peaceful protest to defend the Constitution, as reported by the Times of India.
A bunch of students in Latur, Maharashtra, protested, accusing Dipke of abandoning the NEET paper leak issue and moving on to other matters.
They have sought answers from Dipke on the assurances they said the government had given after the CJP’s July agitation at Jantar Mantar.
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