India's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party has threatened to launch nationwide protests unless the country's chief election officer resigns by Saturday.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), announced on Friday that demonstrations would begin in Mumbai on October 2 if Gyanesh Kumar does not step down.
"If Gyanesh Kumar does not resign by tomorrow, CJP will begin its nationwide protest from Mumbai on 2 October, and take it to cities across India," Dipke posted on X. "This Gandhi Jayanti let's pledge to save democracy," he added, referring to the October 2 holiday marking independence leader Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.
On Thursday, the group had demanded Kumar quit within 48 hours, following a newspaper report linking him to altered voter lists. Opposition parties say the lists have been manipulated to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to reports, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Wednesday that two election commissioners had raised questions or voiced concern with Kumar at least 14 times over 10 months, mostly over the process of updating voter lists that began last year.
The main opposition Congress party announced protest marches on state election offices across India on Friday, demanding Kumar's arrest, his removal, and an independent review of decisions and voter-list changes made under him.
Opposition parties have long accused the commission of deleting the names of millions of voters without warning and adding new voters without verification to favour the BJP.
The Election Commission of India rejected the claims, saying that "differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution" and that all its actions were lawful.
The BJP has defended the commission, accusing the opposition of running a smear campaign because it keeps losing elections. "Neither the Election Commission of India nor any constitutional body in India is under dictatorial rule," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said on Wednesday.
The CJP is a satirical political outfit that was born on Instagram in May, after India's chief justice compared unemployed young Indians to "cockroaches" and "parasites." The movement has since shaken the government of Prime Minister Modi.
CJP-led protests in July forced the resignation of Modi's education minister over exam-paper leaks, one of the prime minister's biggest political setbacks since coming to power in 2014.
