CJP Targets ECI In Mumbai: Why Dipke Chose The City For The Protest

The Cockroach Janta Party will begin its planned “Jail Bharo Andolan” against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park today, choosing Gandhi Jayanti and a site loaded with political memory even after police denied permission for the gathering.

The immediate trigger is an Indian Express investigation that reported an internal rift within the Election Commission. The report said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised repeated objections to decisions they said were taken without their knowledge.

CJP’s decision to launch the agitation in Mumbai is central to its political message. At a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday, founder Abhijeet Dipke linked the protest to the sharp shift between Maharashtra’s 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly results. The police refusal has added another layer to the confrontation.

Mumbai Political Context

Dipke spelt out the party’s argument in Mumbai 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?” he asked.

“It is in this context that we have chosen to start the agitation from Mumbai,” Dipke said. He also added in Marathi, “Delhi che hi takth rakhto Maharashtra maza [Even the Delhi throne is guarded by Maharashtra].”

The Maharashtra numbers are central to that pitch. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won nine seats out of 28 contested. With Shiv Sena winning seven and NCP one, the Mahayuti tally rose to 17 in the 48-seat state. The Maha Vikas Aghadi won 30 seats—Congress 13, Shiv Sena (UBT) nine and NCP eight—while one seat went to an independent.

Election Results Contrast

Then came the reversal.

Six months later, in the state Assembly elections, BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 132 seats. With alliance partners Shiv Sena on 57 and NCP on 41, Mahayuti’s strength rose to 230 seats in the 288-member Legislative Assembly.

The Opposition’s numbers shrank sharply. The MVA won 46 seats in all, with Congress on 16, Shiv Sena (UBT) on 20 and NCP (SP) on 10. Dipke has used that contrast between the Lok Sabha and Assembly outcomes as the main basis for launching the protest from Mumbai.

Gandhi Jayanti Symbolism

Police denied permission for the agitation at Shivaji Park. Dipke dismissed the setback and framed the protest as a test of democratic rights.

“We are fighting against those in power…We all remember Mahatma Gandhi, who fought against the Britishers. Did the British ever permit him to agitate?” Dipke said after the refusal.

Senior journalist and peace activist Jatin Desai explained the choice of city in historical terms. “Mumbai has a historic past and a strong connection with Mahatma Gandhi. It was here in Mumbai (then Bombay) that Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India movement on August 9, 1942, at Gawalia Tank, now called August Kranti Maidan,” Desai said. On Thursday, the CJP also declared that the protest would be held in other major cities including Kolkata, Goa, Bengaluru and Ranchi.

Election Commission Row

The protest draws directly from the Indian Express investigation published on September 23, 2026. The publication reported that Sandhu and Joshi made at least 14 recorded objections over the previous 10 months.

Those objections, the report said, were aimed at decisions the two commissioners believed were taken without their knowledge. Their concerns covered changes to voter registration, additions and deletions in electoral rolls, appeals in the Special Intensive Revision process and control of the voter-roll database.

One objection described a step involving new voters as “unauthorised and illegal.” The two commissioners were reported to be at odds with the Commission’s handling of these issues under Gyanesh Kumar. Shortly after the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also attacked the Election Commission of India over alleged “vote chori” and pointed to Vidarbha constituencies in Maharashtra as an example of alleged election mismanagement.

Court And Police Hurdles

The police case against the Shivaji Park event rests on multiple grounds. Mumbai Police informed organisers it could not authorise the gathering under a Bombay High Court order dated January 4, 2013, and a Maharashtra government order dated January 20, 2016, according to The Hindu.

Police also cited the absence of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation permission. They further flagged possible noise, traffic and hospital-access problems around the venue.

As of October 1, 2026, available reporting indicated that CJP had not sought permission from the Bombay High Court. The Hindu reported that Dipke dismissed that route, while police advised the group to apply to use an alternative venue in Mumbai.