The Cockroach Janta Party has announced its intention to launch a nationwide agitation, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar within 48 hours. The campaign also seeks systemic reforms in the appointment process of election commissioners and the repeal of a 2023 law.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a political campaign, has announced its intention to launch a nationwide agitation if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar does not resign within 48 hours. Abhijeet Dipke, the campaign’s founder, stated that the protest would not be withdrawn without Kumar's resignation and also demanded criminal proceedings against him. The CJP’s demand comes after an investigation by The Indian Express revealed that two election commissioners had objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions about the poll panel’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The newspaper reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected to decisions related to the SIR, stating that some had been taken without their knowledge. Their objections were related to the registration of new voters and changes to Form 6, appeals against the inclusion of voters in West Bengal, and the handling of voter data in Goa, among other matters. Form 6 is used to register new voters.
In one written objection, Sandhu was quoted as having stated that the poll panel had acted against the advice of both commissioners and described the action as ‘unauthorised and illegal’. The two election commissioners also raised concerns over access to the digital electoral roll database. At a press conference in Delhi, Dipke claimed that Kumar was ‘working under the instructions’ of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Dipke questioned why the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was defending Kumar and demanded systemic reforms so that election commissioners are appointed in a fair manner, and they are not ‘someone’s favourite’. The campaign also demanded that all upcoming elections should be put on hold, an immediate ‘freeze’ on the SIR, and an independent inquiry into the voter roll revision exercise. The youth-led campaign has called for voter lists to be rolled back to as they were in January 2025, before the SIR began.
The CJP also demanded that the 2023 law on the appointment of election commissioners be repealed. ‘Draft a new law with active participation of civil society, an independent selection process that inspires public confidence,’ the campaign said. The law states that the head of the poll panel and the two other top members are to be appointed based on the recommendations of a selection committee comprising the prime minister, a Union Cabinet minister, and the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court referred pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the law to a larger bench.
Source:
Scroll.in
