Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke has demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of undermining India’s democracy over the deletion of more than 13 crore names from draft electoral rolls.
Dipke’s remarks came after an Indian Express investigation reported that the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise had struck more than 13 crore names off draft voter rolls across 30 states and Union Territories. The report also detailed repeated objections by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over several decisions related to the electoral rolls.
The Election Commission, however, has rejected the suggestion that decisions taken during the SIR exercise lacked the approval of all three Election Commissioners.
‘Biggest Traitor’
Speaking about the controversy, Dipke launched a sharp attack on Gyanesh Kumar and called for his immediate resignation.
He said: “A report concerning the Election Commission that surfaced yesterday proves that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is the country’s biggest traitor. He is the biggest anti-national in this country, and he should resign immediately… He poses the greatest threat to India’s democracy… Ever since Gyanesh Kumar became Chief Election Commissioner, the government has been deciding who gets to vote and who doesn’t. Is this democracy?”
#WATCH | Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Founder Abhijeet Dipke says, “A report concerning the Election Commission that surfaced yesterday proves that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is the country’s biggest traitor. He is the biggest anti-national in this country,… pic.twitter.com/HfKBMeVpgu
— ANI (@ANI) September 24, 2026
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The remarks followed the report detailing internal objections within the Election Commission over aspects of the SIR process. According to the investigation, Sandhu and Joshi had formally raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months regarding decisions they said were taken without their knowledge.
’13 Crore’ Vote Claim
Dipke also linked the reported scale of the roll deletions to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, arguing that the number of names affected was significant when compared with the margin between the NDA and the Opposition.
“In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the margin between the opposition and the ruling party (NDA) was just 2%. Deleting 13 crore votes is equivalent to deleting roughly 13% to 14% of the total votes. Is Gyanesh Kumar deleting them intentionally to widen that 2% gap so that they never lose office? Why is this being done? What was the need to delete so many votes?” he questioned.
Opposition Leaders Named
Dipke alleged that the electoral-roll changes had disproportionately affected prominent opposition leaders and claimed there was a broader pattern behind the deletions.
He said, “The BJP failed to secure a majority in the 2024 election. The panic button was pressed when they fell short of that majority… They realized then that the mood of the country was shifting and that regional forces were emerging very strongly, be it Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra, the NCP, Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan, Arvind Kejriwal, or Mamata Banerjee.”
He went on to name several leaders while alleging that voter deletions had contributed to their electoral setbacks.
“These chief ministers were targeted and defeated one by one. This cannot be a mere coincidence; there is a clear pattern… In West Bengal, 50,000 votes were deleted from Mamata Banerjee’s constituency, and she lost by a margin of around 15,000 votes. In MK Stalin’s constituency, 100,000 votes were deleted, and he lost by about 45,000 votes. In Delhi, 40,000 votes were deleted from Arvind Kejriwal’s constituency, and he lost by a margin of 4000-5000 votes. Pinarayi Vijayan would have won, but due to the deletion of votes in Kerala, he did not become the Chief Minister. Was this move designed solely to eliminate strong opposition figures?” he said.
These constituency-specific claims were made by Dipke and are not established by the Indian Express investigation cited above. The report did note that in 49 constituencies, SIR deletions exceeded the victory margin, but those seats were not uniformly won by one party: 26 were won by the BJP and 21 by the Trinamool Congress.
‘Is It Democracy?’
Dipke said his objection was not about supporting a particular opposition party but about the impact of voter-roll changes on the electoral process.
He said, “Now, we have no particular affinity for the opposition or any specific party. But in a democracy, if you wipe out the entire opposition, can it still be called a democracy? Is it a free and fair election?”
The controversy comes as the Election Commission faces scrutiny over the SIR exercise and reported disagreements within the three-member poll panel. The Indian Express investigation said Sandhu and Joshi had raised concerns over issues including changes to Form 6, access to electoral-roll databases and the handling of voter deletions and restorations.
The Election Commission has maintained that the SIR process and its decisions were approved by all three commissioners, pushing back against the suggestion of an internal breakdown in decision-making.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: abplive.com
