Abhijeet Dipke, the Cockroach Janta Party’s chief, has demanded that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign within 48 hours, citing the commission’s Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls as the trigger.
The SIR, aimed at cleaning the electoral rolls, has already prompted 14 objections from Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over a ten‑month period, covering voter additions, deletions, and changes to Form 6.
Dipke’s three demands also call for a halt to the SIR, a suspension of upcoming elections until the dispute is resolved, and the repeal of the 2023 law that governs the appointment of election commissioners.
The Election Commission maintains that its internal disagreements are part of normal deliberation and that all final decisions, including those on the SIR, were made unanimously, an EC spokesperson said.
For a voter in Delhi, the dispute feels personal. Neha Sharma, 42, said the SIR could mistakenly drop her name from the roll, jeopardising her right to vote.
If Kumar does not resign, Dipke has pledged nationwide protests and an agitation that could force a freeze on the SIR and delay the upcoming elections, with the party planning to mobilise supporters across all 28 states tomorrow.