Cockroach Janta Party stages anti-SIR protest in Kochi
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The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) held a noisy protest in Kochi against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, with founder Abhijeet Dipke and actor-activist Prakash Raj present. The party repeated claims of vote deletions, while facing questions over arrests of its co-convenors and allegations of foreign funding that it dismissed as baseless.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) organised a protest in Kochi on Saturday to demand the withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, turning the issue into yet another political confrontation. The march, titled “Jantar Mantar at Kochi”, began around 4 p.m. at Rajendra Maidan and attracted participants including party founder Abhijeet Dipke and actor-activist Prakash Raj.
Dipke told news agency ANI that the gathering was a “people’s protest” and said the party’s fight against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar would continue until India has an “independent and impartial election system”. He also claimed that “votes are being deleted across the country”, a serious allegation that the party repeated without presenting evidence in the article.
The protest follows the arrest of CJP co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka in Delhi after they entered the denotified Jantar Mantar site. Both were released on bail after being detained for violating a peace bond, underscoring the legal trouble surrounding the group’s agitation.
Union minister Jitendra Singh earlier alleged that CJP activists receive foreign funding, a charge the party rejected as “baseless”. CJP leaders questioned the minister’s accusations, noting previous meetings with government officials, while the controversy continued to raise doubts about the party’s motives and methods.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor commented that “we believe in democracy; let them protest”, while the party’s social-media posts urged supporters to “show up to save democracy”. The rhetoric highlighted the increasingly polarised atmosphere around the protest.