Founder of India's Cockroach Janta Party arrested ahead of Delhi protest demanding election chief's resignation

Authorities seized Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the youth-driven Cockroach Janta Party, after he was detained on Friday while exiting a house in central Delhi and later arrested on Saturday to prevent potential unrest. His arrest came on the heels of a sizable Delhi rally where hundreds of demonstrators waved the Indian flag and called for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, accusing him of overseeing a special intensive revision that removed over 130 million voters and allegedly favoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The movement, alongside opposition parties and student organisations, has been organising near-daily protests this month over the same grievance. The Election Commission maintains that the revision was impartial and that wrongly deleted voters may re-register. The BJP has accused its rivals of attempting to undermine democracy by questioning the electoral process. Student activist Neha Bora, a prominent protest figure who was also detained on Friday, was released on Saturday and urged authorities to impeach Gyanesh Kumar and halt the revision.