Abhijeet Dipke’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is set for its much-anticipated ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Shivaji Park in Maharashtra’s Mumbai on Friday.
One seat was won by an independent candidate. Soon after the Assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched an attack on the Election Commission over alleged ‘vote chori’ (vote theft). After being asked to meet senior officials, the CJP founder was reported to have exited the police station minutes later.
In the Assembly elections held six months later, the scenario changed altogether. He specifically cited constituencies in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha, while alleging irregularities in the conduct of the elections. Track live updates from CJP protest here The agitation was slated to start at 4 pm on Friday near Gate No 6 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park in Mumbai, Abhijeet Dipke said on Thursday, adding that the stir will subsequently be taken to different parts of the country – such as Goa and Kolkata — before culminating in a sit-in at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. “In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won only nine seats out of 48 seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won nine of the 28 seats it contested in Maharashtra. Along with its alliance partners Shiv Sena (Seven) and Nationalist Congress Party NCP (One), the Mahayuti won 17 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Congress (13), Shiv Sena (UBT) (Nine) and NCP (8), won a combined 30 seats. Earlier reporting noted: The CJP has announced a protest at 4 pm on Friday at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park, near Gate No. 6, as part of a nationwide agitation against the EC.
“It will continue till Kumar resigns,” he said. How did this change happen?” he said, according to an Indian Express report. “It is in this context that we have chosen to start the agitation from Mumbai,” Dipke said. Earlier reporting noted: According to the report, Dipke gathered at Marine Drive with a group of supporters when a police team, including a woman inspector, approached him and escorted him to the police station in a van. The officer also asked him about his identity and hometown during the journey, the press report said. Earlier reporting noted: Dipke has said the agitation will continue until Kumar resigns, arguing that public confidence in the electoral process has been eroded.
the decision to launch the agitation in Mumbai and not Delhi – where its earlier Jantar Mantar agitation against examination irregularities led to the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan – is deliberate While the immediate trigger for the protest is a news investigation that claimed an internal rift within the Election Commission.
The Opposition MVA, comprising Congress (16), Shiv Sena (UBT) (20) and NCP (SP) (10), managed to win 46 seats.
