Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Thursday demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, warning of protests across the country and a stir at Delhi's Jantar Mantar from the end of October if the demand is not met.
In an interaction at the Mumbai Press Club, Dipke said the CJP will hold a protest at Shivaji Park in Dadar area of the city on October 2 to press for the CEC's resignation.
"CEC Gyanesh Kumar must resign and a criminal case should be registered against him," he said.
He said protests will continue until Kumar steps down as the chief of the poll authority.
"Protests will be held in Goa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. If he does not resign, then a protest will be held at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi from October end," he said.
Dipke also demanded that the appointment to the post of CEC should be made in a transparent manner and that there should be involvement of civil society.
He called for freezing of the 2025 voter list, saying it should not be "tampered with further".
Several Opposition parties have been critical of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and demanded his resignation, after it came to light that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions and orders, some of which they said were issued without their knowledge.
The Election Commission has clarified in a statement that the three-member commission took decisions, including those relating to the SIR of electoral rolls, unanimously.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) will take out a morcha against the Election Commission in Mumbai on October 4.
(With inputs from PTI)
