NEW DELHI: India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has announced a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the southern city of Kochi on November 7, renewing its demand for the cancellation of a nationwide voter roll revision exercise.
The demonstration, titled “Jantar Mantar at Kochi”, will be held at Rajendra Maidan from 4pm, the party said in a post on X on Thursday.
“Save Democracy! Cancel SIR! Join Us – 7th November – 4 PM | Rajendra Maidan, Kochi,” the post said.
Save Democracy! Cancel SIR! Join Us – 7th November – 4 PM | Rajendra Maidan, Kochi 📍 https://t.co/yPY824x1mm
— Cockroach Janta Party – CJP (@Cockroachisback) November 5, 2026
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke will attend the demonstration, along with Vijay Mallangi, the group’s south zone lead, and Aafreen Nawaz, its national secretary.
The planned protest marks the group’s latest move in its campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the chief election commissioner.
It follows the arrest of several CJP leaders in New Delhi last month while they were attempting to stage a demonstration at Jantar Mantar.
CJP Leaders Arrested in Delhi
Last month, Dipke, along with other CJP leaders, including Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, was detained by Delhi Police for attempting to hold a protest against Kumar at Jantar Mantar.
The government subsequently denotified Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site. Ranka and Das later breached the restricted site and waved the national flag in protest against the decision.
They were arrested and spent a week in jail before being released after giving an undertaking to a Special Executive Magistrate that they would not organise further demonstrations there while the site remained denotified.
Dipke, who had announced a separate flag-related event at Central Park in Connaught Place, was also arrested. He was later released on a conditional bail bond by the magistrate.
The CJP had extended support to the INDIA bloc’s November 1 rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi but did not participate in the demonstration led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Thousands Join Opposition Rally in Delhi
Thousands of people gathered at Ramlila Maidan on November 1 to demand Kumar’s resignation over the SIR exercise.
The demonstration was the latest in more than a month of opposition protests challenging Modi’s government. Opposition parties allege that the revision of voter lists benefits the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Gandhi led a march towards the rally venue, where thousands of people had already assembled.
Addressing the gathering, Gandhi said Kumar would have to leave his post. He described the voter roll revision as a theft of citizens’ voices and their right to expression.
The Congress leader said removing the chief election commissioner would be the first step towards putting the country back on the right track.
Reuters quoted one protester, Reena Mahto, a member of the Congress party’s student wing, as saying that four members of her family had been removed from the voter list after being wrongly recorded as having moved elsewhere.
Mahto said her family had lived in Jagdalpur in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh for years. She said they were seeking accountability over the deletions.
Another protester, Dinesh Singh, told Reuters he had joined the demonstration for the future of his children, saying he was not affiliated with any political party.
Opposition Alleges Mass Deletion of Voters
The revision exercise has become a major point of confrontation between the opposition and the Election Commission.
Opposition parties allege that more than 130 million names have been removed from voter lists and claim the deletions disproportionately affected Muslim voters and other minority communities considered unlikely to support the BJP.
The protests intensified after The Indian Express reported that two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had raised concerns internally over voter list revisions, registration procedures and digital systems.
The report said the objections had been raised over several decisions during the preceding months.
