New Delhi, October 10: CJP Delhi protest plans were blocked on Saturday as Delhi Police detained the top leadership of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and several senior opposition figures amid a massive security clampdown around Jantar Mantar, where the party had called a demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and his colleagues Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were detained inside their aircraft at around 10.30 am, shortly after it landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mumbai. The party alleged that the three were taken to an undisclosed location and denied access to their lawyers. The allegation could not be independently verified.
In a video recorded in advance, Dipke named the party’s organisation in-charge, Ajinkya Shinde, to lead the agitation in his absence. Shinde urged supporters to treat any spot where the police stopped them as their Jantar Mantar.
By early afternoon, around 500 people had been detained across the New Delhi area, including near Regal Cinema, Minto Bridge and Akashvani Bhawan, according to police sources quoted by news agency PTI. Drones were being used to monitor movement towards the protest site.
Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and MPs of her party were detained at about 3 pm while staging a sit-in near the South Avenue bus stand. Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal was detained shortly afterwards. All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and activist Yogendra Yadav were detained near INA Market. A group of lawyers marching from the Supreme Court towards Jantar Mantar was also detained.
The CJP claimed that YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was picked up from his residence in Gurugram at about 8 am. The party’s legal affairs head, Ratna Singh, said she was held in a vehicle near her residence without being shown any written order.
Officials said 25 to 30 protesters jumped barricades on Imtiaz Ali Marg near Akashvani Bhawan around noon. The police alleged that stones were thrown at security personnel, and two policemen were reported injured.
More than 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed across the capital in view of the CJP Delhi protest. Entry and exit at 45 Delhi Metro stations have remained closed since 9 pm on Friday, and mobile internet services are suspended within a four-kilometre radius in central Delhi until 10 pm on Saturday. Train arrivals at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations have been curtailed, while traffic restrictions have been in force in central Delhi since 6 am.
The Delhi Police had refused permission for the demonstration on Friday, citing short notice and alleged violations of conditions during an earlier protest. On the same day, the Supreme Court cautioned the authorities against blanket closures of roads, trains and metro stations in anticipation of a law and order problem.
Reacting to the developments, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra called the agitation a “flop show” and said the attempt to hold the country hostage had failed. Kejriwal described the security clampdown as “worse than Emergency”.
The agitation centres on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and allegations of wrongful deletion of voters, which the Opposition and the CJP have blamed on the Election Commission. The CJP’s earlier protest at Jantar Mantar in July over alleged NEET-UG irregularities was followed by the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The situation in the capital remained fluid at the time of filing this report, with restrictions expected to continue through the evening.
Why the CJP called the protest at Jantar Mantar on October 10
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) called the October 10 protest to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including allegations of wrongful deletion of voters. The party has also sought criminal proceedings against him, a halt to the SIR and a change in the law governing the appointment of election commissioners.
The date was fixed on October 2, when CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, after a rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, announced that supporters from across the country would march to Delhi on October 10 if the CEC did not step down. The latest round of protests followed an Indian Express report that the CEC’s two fellow commissioners had formally raised concerns over voter-list revisions several times in recent months.
Jantar Mantar was chosen because it is Delhi’s designated protest site, and because the CJP’s July agitation there over the NEET-UG paper leak was followed by the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The party has termed the new agitation “Jantar Mantar 2.0”. The Election Commission has previously defended the SIR as a lawful exercise.
