The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and several student organisations have vowed to continue their protests in Delhi despite a sweeping police crackdown, announcing daily marches to Jantar Mantar until Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resigns or is removed from office.
The groups say they are protesting alleged vote theft and collusion between the Election Commission and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
On Saturday, October 10, police detained CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, several senior party leaders and hundreds of others during operations across Delhi.
The CJP had called on supporters to gather at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital. Police began detaining protesters after refusing permission for the demonstration. The party accused officers of mistreating those taken into custody.
Party leaders said police detained Dipke shortly after his flight landed in Delhi at around 11am on Saturday. They initially did not know where he and the other detained leaders had been taken. The CJP also alleged that Dipke was being treated inhumanely and was not being allowed to attend his grandmother’s funeral in his hometown in Maharashtra.
Ajinkya Shinde, a CJP leader tasked with directing the movement in Dipke’s absence, said: “From now on, there will be marches to Jantar Mantar every day until Gyanesh Kumar is removed as chief election commissioner.”
Srijan Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), called for a broader united front against the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said student protests would spread to different parts of the country from Sunday and remain peaceful. “Wherever the police stop us, we will turn that place into Jantar Mantar,” he said.
Opposition alliance announces Monday protest
The Congress-led opposition alliance, INDIA, has also announced a protest for Monday. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said alliance leaders would meet Chief Justice of India Surya Kant at the Supreme Court that day and submit a memorandum.
On Friday, the alliance submitted a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu outlining four demands. These included Kumar’s resignation, repeal of the 2023 law granting immunity to the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners, suspension of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, and restoration of the names of 133 million voters allegedly removed from the lists. The alliance also demanded the return of paper ballots in all elections and the cancellation of assembly elections held over the past two years where it says conclusive evidence of vote theft has been found.
More than 1,500 detained in Delhi
Police detained more than 1,500 people across Delhi on Saturday, saying the operation was necessary because the Jantar Mantar gathering had not been authorised. Those detained included four former chief ministers: Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress founder Mamata Banerjee, and left-wing leaders Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar.
CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were also detained alongside Dipke. His grandmother died in Maharashtra while he was in police custody. Police said he had been told he could leave to attend the funeral, but it remained unclear by Saturday evening whether he had been released.
Authorities imposed extensive security measures across the capital, deploying at least 25,000 Delhi Police and central paramilitary personnel. Entrances to 45 Delhi Metro stations were closed, more than 250 train services were cancelled, and internet services were suspended within a four-kilometre radius of Jantar Mantar.
Police sources said women and elderly detainees were being released first. Security deployments were expected to continue on Sunday.
Rahul Gandhi urges protesters not to back down
Rahul Gandhi, who was attending an interaction with students in Chennai, wrote in a post on X: “Detain all the leaders. Detain all the youth. Detain all of us. We are closing in on you, and we will not back down … Young people of India, I am proud of you. Keep protesting.”
Before his detention, Kejriwal told protesters: “Modiji, wherever you stop us, sit down there. Turn that place into Jantar Mantar.”
Banerjee said the situation had gone beyond even an Emergency, describing it as a “super emergency.” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad defended Kumar and the voter-list revision process. Speaking at a press conference, he said Indian democracy had thwarted an attempt to create disorder. “The country will be governed through Parliament, not through street protests,” he said.
Protests spread to other Indian cities
In Mumbai, police detained around 200 people who staged a solidarity protest for the CJP movement at August Kranti Maidan. Those detained included Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi and actor Imran Khan.
Protests and detentions were also reported in several other Indian cities, including Ahmedabad and Chennai.
