Delhi witnessed high political drama on Saturday after several leaders, activists, and some of the founding members of the (CJP) were detained before they could reach Jantar Mantar for the satirical outfit’s planned protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
The protest, called by founder Abhijeet Dipke, seeks Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
Among those detained were CJP’s prominent faces, including Dipke, co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, and YouTuber . According to a post on CJP’s X account, “Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have been taken to an undisclosed location.”
Dipke, Das and Ranka were allegedly detained by Delhi Police after their flight from Mumbai landed at Delhi Airport. After being detained on the flight, Dipke criticised the police action in a video statement, adding that he was prepared to be arrested.
“This is not something even Indira Gandhi did during the Emergency; this is a worse situation than that, and we are all prepared for arrest,” he said.
However, protesters and CJP founders are not the only people who have been detained across the national capital. Delhi Police have also cracked down on politicians, including MA Baby, Pinarayi Vijayan, MV Govindan Master, A Vijayaraghavan, KK Shailaja, John Brittas MP, KN Balagopal, Brinda Karat and PK Sreemathi. According to CPI(M), the party leaders were detained as soon as they arrived at .
1. Abhijeet Dipke
2. Saurav Das
3. Ashutosh Ranka
4. Ratna Singh
5. Dhruv Rathee
6. Pinarayi Vijayan
7. MA Baby
8. MV Govindan Master
9. A Vijayaraghavan
10. KK Shailaja
11. John Brittas
12. KN Balagopal
13. Brinda Karat
14. PK Sreemathi
15. Tushar Gandhi (great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, detained in Mumbai)
16. (AAP leader detained in Chandigarh)
While the CJP convenor and co-convenors were detained as soon as they landed in the national capital, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was detained at his family home in Gurugram’s Sector 56 on Saturday after he reportedly declined requests from Gurugram and Delhi police teams not to travel to Jantar Mantar to take part in the protest.
According to reports, over 1,500 people have been detained so far, as Delhi has been put under a security blanket. planned a security deployment of about 35,000 police and paramilitary personnel, alongside checkpoints and barricades throughout the capital. Parts of central Delhi faced mobile internet suspensions, while access to and from several Metro stations was restricted.
The protest against Kumar comes after a report in The Indian Express last month suggested an internal rift in the Election Commission. It found that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had repeatedly raised concerns within the three-member poll panel. Although all three commissioners oversaw the nationwide SIR exercise, Sandhu and Joshi recorded at least 14 formal objections over 10 months, including four on one day. They said decisions had been taken and orders issued without their knowledge.
