'Fight against CEC will continue': CJP's Dipke ahead of anti-SIR rally in Kochi

Dipke made the remarks after arriving at Cochin International Airport to attend the party's ‘Jantar Mantar at Kochi’.

NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Saturday said his party would continue its campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar until an independent and impartial electoral system was ensured in the country.

Dipke made the remarks after arriving at Cochin International Airport to attend the party's ‘Jantar Mantar at Kochi’ protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Kumar. He alleged that elections conducted under the present Chief Election Commissioner could not be trusted.

"The fight against Gyanesh Kumar will continue until we get an independent and impartial election system in India. That is very necessary because, under Gyanesh Kumar, elections cannot be trusted. They are being rigged only to help one party, and we have seen plenty of examples of that," he alleged.

Asked whether votes had been deleted in Keralam during the SIR exercise, Dipke claimed that voter deletions were taking place across the country. "Votes are being deleted across the country. There is not even a single state where votes are not being deleted..." he said.

He also claimed that more than 13 crore voters had been deleted, accounting for 13-14% of the registered electorate. These figures were his allegations and could not be independently verified from the details available.

Dipke said he expected a large turnout of young people, claiming that Keralam had the highest number of registered CJP members. "I am pretty sure the young population of Keralam, the youth of Keralam, will come out in large numbers today. From our database, I can definitely tell you that the largest number of registered CJP members are from Keralam," he said.

He added that he was attending the protest at the invitation of the organisers and actor Prakash Raj, describing it as a people's movement. Asked about the appointment of the former Keralam chief electoral officer as secretary to the state's chief minister, Dipke said such appointments could raise questions about the impartiality of the electoral system.

"I think such a thing should not happen anywhere. A similar thing happened in Bengal when the BJP won the election; they appointed the election commissioner as the chief secretary of the CM. These things cannot be entertained or tolerated when it comes to the impartiality of the election system..." he said.

The protest rally began at Marine Drive in Kochi, with around 500 activists taking part, organisers said. Led by actor Prakash Raj, the march was organised to demand the withdrawal of the SIR exercise and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) state president Chintha Jerome also joined the march. Participants carried national flags and raised slogans against the CEC.