Why CJP wants to test new Maharashtra turf in the battle against CEC?

It was Delhi that first gave the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) a large support base when it held its first protest at Jantar Mantar around four months ago. Within two months, the party claimed its first major success, with the resignation of then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid the controversy over alleged NEET discrepancies. Despite building a dedicated support base in the national capital, the party has now moved to Maharashtra.

The choice of Maharashtra is significant. Apart from October 2 being the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Mumbai was also the city from where the Quit India Movement was launched in 1942. But the CJP is also looking to tap into what it believes is a lingering resentment among people in Maharashtra, where the opposition won 31 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.

CJP leaders allege that the Election Commission played a partisan role in changes to the voter lists between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, held just five months apart, which they believe helped make the Assembly election easier for the NDA partners, who subsequently won it.

The party believes that this resentment is still alive and that, after establishing its support base in Delhi, it can create another centre of mobilisation in Mumbai against the BJP, on whose instructions they think the Election Commission rigged the elections. The city, widely known as India's financial capital, could allow the party to expand its campaign and put pressure on the BJP. Maharashtra has also traditionally been important to national and regional parties because of the state's political and economic weight, and the BJP is currently heading it.

One of the figures opposition leaders have cited to prove the discrepancies in the increase in the number of voters in Maharashtra is the comparison of voters before and after the Lok Sabha elections. Between the 2019 and 2024 elections, around 32 lakh voters were added over five years. But in just the five months between the 2024 Lok Sabha and November 2024 Assembly elections, the voter base increased drastically by around 39 lakh. Several opposition leaders and political observers had flagged the issue publicly.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on Thursday, “In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won only nine seats out of 48 seats. In the Assembly elections held six months later, the scenario changed altogether. How did this change happen?”

“It is in this context that we have chosen to start the agitation from Mumbai,” Dipke said.

Another consideration, according to political observers, is that Delhi could have been more adversarial terrain for another CJP-led protest. The party's earlier agitation had challenged the perception of the BJP-led Centre's ability to contain street protests, and observers believe the government could have been more prepared to prevent a repeat.

Political observers believe that sustained mobilisation on the streets can bring greater public attention to an issue, prompting more people to enquire about it and potentially increasing political pressure on the government.

However, the party's old turf has not gone silent. People gathered in Delhi as well, while police presence was increased and several people were detained as authorities tried to prevent a larger gathering.

Interestingly, while CJP's pressure politics began with specific issues, this time the party has taken its campaign directly against political quarters by accusing the Election Commission of running a nexus with the ruling BJP, resulting in its partisan treatment of elections.

The CJP's protest in Maharashtra is against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom the party has accused of disenfranchising people of their basic right to vote.