India

CJP Founder Dipke Vows Continued Opposition to Chief Election Commissioner Ahead of Kochi Rally

By Kanchan Yadav

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), said on Saturday that his party would keep campaigning against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar until India has an independent and impartial electoral system. Dipke made the statement after arriving at Cochin International Airport to attend the party’s ‘Jantar Mantar at Kochi’ protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and against Kumar. He alleged that elections under the current CEC cannot be trusted, claiming they are rigged to benefit one party and citing numerous examples. When asked whether votes had been deleted in Kerala during the SIR exercise, Dipke said voter deletions were occurring nationwide, adding that more than 13 crore voters—about 13‑14% of the registered electorate—had been removed, though these figures could not be independently verified. He expected a large turnout of young people, noting that Kerala has the highest number of registered CJP members. Dipke said he was attending the protest at the invitation of organisers and actor Prakash Raj, describing it as a people’s movement. Asked about the appointment of a former Kerala chief electoral officer as secretary to the state’s chief minister, Dipke warned that such appointments could raise questions about the impartiality of the electoral system, citing a similar incident in Bengal. The protest began at Marine Drive in Kochi with around 500 activists, led by Prakash Raj, demanding the withdrawal of the SIR exercise and the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Democratic Youth Federation of India state president Chintha Jerome also joined the march. Participants carried national flags and raised slogans against the CEC.