The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has announced a further protest in the Jantar Mantar of Delhi on October 10, with its campaign on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. CJP founder Abhijit Dipke announced this after the organisation held a protest at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on October 2.
According to reports, Dipke said that if Kumar does not resign, supporters of the CJP will travel to Delhi and hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar. He described the proposed action as a peaceful protest and called on people supporting what the organisation describes as free and fair elections to participate.
Dipke also said that if Delhi Police stopped the protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar, the site where they were stopped would effectively become their protest site. He said the demonstration would follow the path associated with Mahatma Gandhi and stressed that the planned mobilisation would be peaceful.
The announcement comes at the same time as political and civic debate on the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and the wider electoral roll revision. The CJP has made it a central feature of its campaign and has asked Kumar's resignation as well as other reforms to the election process.
The organisation has also called for action over what it says are irregularities in voter-list revisions. CJP members have claimed that vast numbers of voters have been removed from the electoral rolls and have raised questions about the SIR process. These figures and allegations are made by the organisation and are disputed in an overall debate about the electoral-roll process.
The Election Commission, meanwhile, has maintained that the decisions on the SIR exercise were made through the Commission's usual decision-making process. The poll panel has rejected suggestions of differences in individual views among the commissioners as being institutional dissent, and has claimed that final decisions were unanimous.
The controversy was also rooted in the reporting about differences among the three-member Election Commission over electoral roll revision. Opposition parties and civil society groups have challenged the poll panel and the SIR process on the basis that it is working and for the Election Commission to explain and defend its procedures.
The CJP's October 10 announcement follows its October 2 mobilisation in Mumbai. The group held a protest in Shivaji Park despite reports that permission was not given to the protest. There was a big audience and several public figures were reported to have attended.
If Gyanesh Kumar doesn’t resign, cockroaches from across India will march to Delhi & protest at Jantar Mantar on October 10.
— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) October 2, 2026
If Delhi Police tries to stop us, wherever they stop us will become our Jantar Mantar..
Ours will be a peaceful andolan. We will walk on the path shown…
The proposed Delhi protest is also related to the organisation’s earlier use of Jantar Mantar as a place for demonstrations. Dipke has referred to the planned mobilisation as “Jantar Mantar 2.0”, signalling a return to the Delhi protest site. The CJP had previously organised a long-duration demonstration at the venue over the NEET question paper leak issue.
The October 10 plan comes as other protests on the SIR exercise and the functioning of the Election Commission have also been happening in Delhi. Opposition parties, student groups and civil society activists also staged a separate mobilisation in the national capital on October 2. Delhi Police arrested more than 500 people in that demonstration, according to sources.
For the CJP, the October 10 protest is intended to keep pressure on the Election Commission to meet the organisation’s demands. Dipke has stated that the campaign will continue if the resignation demand is not accepted. Also, the group has asked for more transparency in the appointment of election commissioners and changes to the electoral roll revision process.
The proposed demonstration will depend on Delhi's situation, such as the arrangements and permissions for the protest. As of October 3, the CJP's announcement was conditional on Kumar not resigning. The organisation said it will be peaceful for the mobilisation to take place.
The SIR and electoral rolls dispute is likely to remain a political and legal issue and CJP and other organisations will continue to argue for it while the Election Commission continues to object. The planned October 10 protest might become another public demonstration around the wider issue of electoral roll revision and the functioning of the poll panel.
