Founder Abhijeet Dipke said the movement would start its campaign in Mumbai on Gandhi Jayanti and then take demonstrations to cities across the country. The ultimatum follows allegations of serious internal disagreements within the Election Commission over decisions affecting electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision.
“If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign by tomorrow, CJP will begin its nationwide protest from Mumbai on 2 October, and take it to cities across India,” Dipke said on Friday. The organisation had initially given Kumar 48 hours to step down and threatened an indefinite sit-in in New Delhi if its demand was ignored.
The CJP has also launched an “Election Commission Thik Karo” campaign and called for the SIR process to be halted. Its leaders have demanded an independent investigation into electoral-roll decisions and questioned whether safeguards governing voter registration, deletion and data management were properly observed.
The dispute intensified after information emerged that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders concerning electoral rolls. The objections reportedly covered registration of new voters, deletion and restoration of names, changes to Form 6 and control of the technology used to maintain voter data.
Some objections concerned decisions that Sandhu and Joshi said had been taken or communicated without their knowledge. The two commissioners also raised concerns about centralising access to electoral-roll systems in New Delhi and, in separate communications, approached the Cabinet Secretary over changes affecting oversight of the commission’s technology infrastructure.
The Election Commission has rejected suggestions that the exchanges demonstrate improper decision-making. It said differing views and observations were a normal part of institutional deliberation and maintained that its final decisions, including those governing the SIR, were unanimous and legally valid.
The commission said it functions under Article 324 of the Constitution, statutory rules and established conventions. Officials have maintained that questions raised while proposals or orders are being considered should not be equated with dissent from final decisions approved by the three-member body.
Opposition parties have nevertheless seized on the disclosures to renew accusations that the electoral-roll revision has been conducted unfairly. Congress organised marches towards election offices in several state capitals on Friday, demanding Kumar’s removal and an independent examination of decisions taken during the revision.
The opposition has alleged that names have been removed from voter lists without adequate safeguards while some additions have lacked sufficient verification, claims the Election Commission disputes. The Bharatiya Janata Party has defended the commission and rejected allegations that the institution has been manipulated to favour the governing party.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said internal deliberations demonstrated that the commission was functioning democratically. He said the final SIR decisions had been reached unanimously by all three commissioners and argued that disagreements during deliberations did not establish that the constitutional body was operating under one person’s control.
The controversy has given the CJP another national issue around which to mobilise young supporters. The organisation describes itself as a youth pressure group rather than a registered political party and emerged this year from an online protest campaign after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant used the words “cockroaches” and “parasites” while criticising a section of unemployed young people during a court hearing.
Its campaign subsequently expanded into street mobilisation over examination irregularities, education and public services. The group’s leaders have also organised inspections of government schools and used social media to highlight complaints about staffing and infrastructure.
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