Protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are set to intensify on Friday, October 16, with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) planning its ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march in Delhi and a separate rally in Mumbai. The demonstrations come amid police restrictions, legal challenges over designated protest sites and growing political tensions over the revision of voter lists.
The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) is set to hold its ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march on Friday, October 16, amid heightened security and restrictions in Delhi. Delhi Police has urged people to stay away from the proposed gathering at Central Park in Connaught Place, citing prohibitory orders, while the New Delhi Municipal Council has said the park will remain closed on October 16 and 17. Police said a small gathering may be allowed to wave the national flag and sing the national anthem. The Delhi High Court declined to restrain the protest, while the Supreme Court sought responses from the Union government and Delhi Police on a petition challenging the removal of Jantar Mantar’s status as a designated protest site.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke has urged political parties and civil society groups to join the march to defend voting rights, questioning alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He has alleged that the deletion of more than 13 crore voters’ names raises questions about electoral outcomes and claimed he was being kept under police surveillance. The New Delhi Traders Association, meanwhile, has urged political parties and protesters to hold demonstrations elsewhere, saying rallies in Connaught Place over the past three weeks have affected businesses and disrupted livelihoods.
In a separate development, Mumbai Police has granted CJP permission to hold its October 16 rally at Azad Maidan, a designated protest site, in solidarity with party leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, who were remanded to five-day judicial custody after raising slogans demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation at Jantar Mantar. Actor Prakash Raj has also announced that he will join an anti-SIR protest at Manaveeyam Veedhi in Thiruvananthapuram at 5 pm on Friday. The protests come amid wider opposition criticism of the SIR exercise, with Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam joining an INDIA bloc protest in Chennai on Thursday.
The political row has also reached the Supreme Court, which issued notices to Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders over the October 12 march to its premises. The BJP accused the opposition of pursuing ‘regime change’ through protests, while senior advocate Prashant Bhushan defended regime change as a democratic right. Separately, the Election Commission announced a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union territories, with January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date. Friday’s key developments will centre on the CJP rallies in Delhi and Mumbai, police restrictions and the continuing legal and political dispute over protest venues and electoral rolls.