Leaders of India's Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were detained early on Tuesday after they entered a heavily-guarded protest site and chanted slogans demanding the country's election chief resign over a controversial revision of electoral rolls. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke shared a video showing Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das being taken away from Jantar Mantar in Delhi, a historic observatory popular for protests, by police. Footage showed the two - along with others - climbing over police barricades before chanting slogans while holding the Indian flag.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's opponents allege the voter list revision benefits his party, a charge it and the Election Commission reject. There have been days of protests demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. Police have stepped up security across Delhi as demonstrators challenge restrictions on where protests can be held.
Early on Tuesday, Dipke, Das and Ranka all shared videos showing Das and Ranka entering Jantar Mantar. "You cannot denotify the resistance," Dipke wrote on X. Das also posted a message declaring that the site had been "reclaimed" and that they were being detained.
It was not immediately clear where police had taken the leaders. Ranka later appeared on an Instagram live broadcast from a police bus alongside other detainees where they appeared cheerful and said they would not back down. The detentions came a day after the federal home ministry announced that Jantar Mantar, long associated with public protests in Delhi, would no longer be a designated protest venue.
Authorities instead identified three alternative locations where demonstrations can be held with permission. Before the decision, the CJP had met Delhi Police officials to seek permission for a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar and had warned that it would announce further demonstrations if it received no response. "30 mins after we went to Delhi Police asking for a date when we can go to Jantar Mantar, Jantar Mantar was de-notified as a protest site," Ranka had earlier posted on X.
Most of the party's leadership has been in Delhi in recent days. Dipke, however, had travelled to his hometown in Maharashtra after the death of his grandmother. He was among several CJP leaders detained ahead of a planned demonstration on Saturday and was released the next day.
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