Thousands of protesters demonstrated outside Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Friday (October 2, 2026) against alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, organised by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
CJP has demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and subsequent criminal proceedings against him to reveal who gave the orders for such an exercise, freeze the SIR process, restoring the January 2025 voters list, and repeal the 2023 law governing appointment of Election Commissioners and bring a new transparent mechanism with civil society participation. Gangadhar Menon (70), one of the protesters and a teacher at Somaiya College, said: “So far, we were talking that VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) had problems, but this has gone way too deep. Because of the ECI, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shop is running.
Though police permission was not granted for the protest, the demonstrators sat outside the historic Shivaji Park’s gates in Dadar with the tricolour in their hands seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, while CJP conveners Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das, and its head of legal affairs Ratna Singh, addressed the protesters raising slogans of ‘Gyanesh, it’s done, bro’. Abhijit Dipke raised slogans of ‘Gyanu, it’s done bro’, saying: “If Gyanu is gone, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also go. Addressing the gathering, Mr. “We should not be afraid of detention. We should not be afraid of being arrested. During the protest, prominent figures, including actor Shabana Azmi and singer Vishal Dadlani were also present. “Since childhood we have been hearing voting is our right, but if the same right is taken away, then what will we do, we protest. Azmi. Now, they are going for voters list itself.”
Who is Gyanesh [Kumar] to take away Babasaheb’s Constitution,” said Ashutosh Ranka, adding that “this is just a trailer as the picture will be at Jantar Mantar in Delhi”. Ranka said protesters should not fear action against them. They will try to scare and threaten us, but we are not going to be afraid,” he said. We don’t need to tolerate this as it is our country and the Constitution of this country gives this right,” said Ms.
