India's Cockroach Janata Party, student groups to protest, demand poll chief's resignation

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will face renewed pressure on Friday as the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janata Party and a separate coalition of student and activist groups stage fresh protests, demanding the resignation of the elections commission chief over a controversial voter roll revision.

The CJP will rally in Mumbai and plans to expand demonstrations nationwide in the coming days, while student and civil society groups will gather at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.

The protests mark the latest escalation in a dispute that has put unprecedented scrutiny on India’s Election Commission, long regarded as one of the country’s most trusted institutions.

The protesters’ main allegation is that the commission manipulated voter rolls in ways that favour Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The commission and the government have denied the allegations. Pressure on Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar intensified last month after the Indian Express newspaper reported the election chief’s two deputies had formally raised concerns at least 14 times over the past 10 months over voter-list revisions, registration procedures and the commission’s digital systems.

The Election Commission has said differing views are a normal part of internal deliberations and that all its actions were lawful.

“We have been asking and demanding for a change but nothing of that is going to happen, if our only tool that is left to change anything in our society ‘the right to vote’ is taken away from us,” Saurav Das, CJP’s convenor, told Indian news agency ANI on Thursday.

India opposition parties call for protests over ‘vote theft’

“We will only end the protest after Gyanesh Kumar resigns.” The controversy centres on a nationwide voter-verification exercise launched last year that critics say has led to millions of eligible voters being removed from electoral rolls.

The commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased or ineligible voters and ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls. Opposition parties led by the Congress party are also set to begin protests demanding Kumar’s resignation on October 6.

The CJP, a youth movement that emerged earlier this year from online frustration over unemployment and leaked examination papers, has become an unexpected political force.

Led by Abhijeet Dipke, the party gained national prominence after spearheading mass protests over exam-paper leaks that led to the resignation of India’s education minister, one of Modi’s most significant political setbacks in recent years.