Delhi police detained hundreds of demonstrators during the latest protest by the Gen-Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which is demanding election reforms. The group said its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, who started the action in May after India’s Chief Justice compared some unemployed young people to “cockroaches,” was detained along with other organisers immediately after arriving in Delhi.
Tens of thousands of security personnel were mobilised, and highways were closed in preparation for the demonstration, which the CJP maintained would take place. The Delhi Police have not commented on the detentions, but have refused permission for the protest to take place in Jantar Mantar, a landmark in the Indian capital.
The group, which is not registered as a political party in India, is demanding electoral reforms just months before critical state elections. It has also called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar after claims of voter list manipulation, which the Election Commission has denied.
Under Kumar’s chairmanship, India’s election commission undertook a massive exercise to update electoral rolls nationwide, claiming it was a standard effort to remove dead, duplicate, or disqualified voters. However, in many jurisdictions, the process has drawn controversy, with tens of thousands of registrants claiming they were wrongfully purged.
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