NEW DELHI: Abhijeet Dipke, founder of India’s Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), has vowed to proceed with a planned protest in New Delhi on Saturday despite reported detentions of supporters.
The protest calls for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a controversial revision of voter lists that reportedly removed 130 million voters nationwide.
In a post on X on Friday, Dipke said he would march to Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in the capital, despite the detentions. He estimated that thousands of supporters had been detained.
Police said the CJP had not obtained permission for Saturday’s demonstration and warned that violations of protest regulations could lead to legal action.
The voter-list revision has drawn criticism from youth groups, opposition parties and student organisations. India began the verification exercise last year ahead of elections in Bihar, and the process has since expanded to most states.