Hundreds from India's Gen Z-led 'cockroach' party protest, seek election chief's resignation
Supporters of India’s Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party protest in Mumbai over voter roll changes, demand Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, and plan nationwide demonstrations amid allegations of vote manipulation
MUMBAI/DELHI: Hundreds of supporters of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party protested in India's financial capital Mumbai on Friday, kicking off a new nationwide campaign against changes to voter rolls they say benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing party.
The demonstration marks the latest in a series of youth-led protests that have emerged this year, putting pressure on Modi unprecedented in his 12 years in power.
Critics say a nationwide voter-verification exercise launched last year has led to millions of eligible voters being removed from electoral rolls.
The commission, long regarded as one of the country's most trusted institutions, says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased or ineligible voters. The chief of the Election Commission, Gyanesh Kumar, who is at the heart of the criticism, has not commented.
Hundreds of supporters of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Mumbai waved the Indian flags at the protest site and shouting "Gyanu it's done bro." Some carried placards that read "THE JANTA HAS A SPINE, GYANU MUST RESIGN."
Party lists cities it will target this month
Led by Abhijeet Dipke, the CJP - which adopted the name after India's chief justice called unemployed youth and online activists "cockroaches" - gained national prominence after spearheading mass protests over exam-paper leaks; those protests led to the resignation of India's education minister.
Pressure on Kumar intensified last month after the Indian Express newspaper reported the election chief's two deputies had formally raised concerns at least 14 times over the past 10 months over voter-list revisions, registration procedures and the commission's digital systems.
The Election Commission has said differing views are normal in internal deliberations.
Saurav Das, CJP's spokesperson told Reuters, protests will continue until Kumar resigns.
"We will protest for few hours today. Apart from Mumbai, we will do Goa, Kolkata, Bangalore, this whole month," he said.
However, in Delhi, a separate group of student protesters was not allowed to gather, with batches of them bundled into buses and taken away by the police. Several nearby metro stations remained shut and security was tightened.
Earlier in the day, as police pushed him onto a bus, protester Rishabh Singh said, "the right to protest is our fundamental right, and we want answers from the government on vote theft."
Election Commission launches review of voter rolls
The main allegation of the protesters and opposition parties is that the commission manipulated voter rolls in ways that favour Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The commission and the government have denied the allegations.
On Wednesday, the INDIA alliance, an opposition grouping of more than two dozen parties lead by Congress, said it would begin protests demanding Kumar's resignation on October 6. All opposition lawmakers plan to march to the Election Commission office in Delhi, they said.
In a move that appeared aimed at easing tensions, on Friday the election commission directed officials to register newly eligible voters and those omitted from electoral rolls.
The CJP, a youth movement that emerged earlier this year from online frustration over unemployment and leaked examination papers, has become an unexpected political force.
"Now that Modi has been in power for over 12 years, new challenges are coming up from different sections of society, which makes it hard for him to box them as anti-national forces," political analyst Rasheed Kidwai said.
He added that a section of the country's youth is challenging his credibility, and they have an impact on 40% of the population.