Leaders of India's “cockroach” youth movement have threatened nationwide protests if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar does not resign within 48 hours, intensifying pressure on the country's election authority following a report of internal disagreements over changes to voter lists.
The Cockroach Janta Party, led by founder Abhijeet Dipke, issued the ultimatum Thursday and said it would launch a nationwide campaign and an indefinite sit-in in New Delhi if Kumar refuses to step down.
The move followed a report by The Indian Express that two of the three election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions concerning electoral rolls and other aspects of the voter-list revision process.
The newspaper reported that some of the objections involved decisions made without the commissioners' knowledge, changes to forms used by new voters, and the deletion or restoration of names during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Opposition parties have separately accused the Election Commission of manipulating voter lists in ways they say could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. The Election Commission has rejected accusations that it is biased.
On Thursday, the main opposition Congress party announced protest marches at election offices across India on Friday, demanding Kumar's arrest, his removal from office and an independent review of all decisions and voter-list changes made under his tenure.
The Election Commission of India has said differences between election commissioners are normal in any institution and that all its actions were lawful. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
“If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign within 48 hours, the Cockroach Janta Party will start a nationwide agitation ... We will not back down without Gyanesh Kumar's resignation,” Dipke, who founded the movement, said at a news conference.
The Cockroach Janta Party is fresh off its successful youth demonstrations in July, which led to the resignation of Modi's education minister over exam-paper leaks, one of Modi's biggest political setbacks since he came to power in 2014.
“Differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution,” the panel said in a statement Wednesday following the newspaper report. “They are a part of the decision-making process before a final decision is taken.”
Kumar is one of three election commissioners and serves as chief election commissioner because he is the most senior.
Election commissioners Sandhu and Joshi, whom the newspaper said had questioned and differed with Kumar, did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Opposition parties have criticized the conduct of the panel in recent years, alleging that millions of voters' names were deleted without warning and that new voters were added without verification to favor the BJP.
The BJP has defended the poll panel and said opposition parties had launched a smear campaign because they were regularly losing elections.
“Neither the Election Commission of India nor any constitutional body in India is under dictatorial rule ... They are functioning democratically,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a media briefing Wednesday.
