KOCHI: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has announced a fresh protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Kochi, Kerala, on November 7, marking its return to street demonstrations after a brief pause.
Titled “Jantar Mantar at Kochi”, the protest will be held at Rajendra Maidan from 4 pm. The party has called on supporters to join the demonstration under the slogan “Save Democracy! Cancel SIR!”, reiterating its demand that the voter roll revision exercise be scrapped.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke will attend the protest along with the party’s south zone lead Vijay Mallangi and national secretary Aafreen Nawaz.
The announcement comes after Dipke had indicated that the organisation would take a break from demonstrations, following the detention of its leaders during protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR exercise in Delhi.
On October 13, CJP co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were arrested after entering the denotified Jantar Mantar protest site and unfurling the national flag. Dipke was also detained ahead of a planned Tiranga march on October 16.
The party’s latest announcement follows the questioning of Das, Ranka and Ajinkya Shinde by the Delhi Police Crime Branch on November 5 in connection with two FIRs linked to the October protest. The cases concern alleged trespass and violation of restrictions at the denotified protest site.
The Kochi demonstration is the party’s latest effort to take its campaign against SIR beyond Delhi, with the cancellation of the electoral roll revision remaining its central demand.
With inputs from media reports