New Delhi: The tricolour fluttered across Connaught Place, Palika Bazaar and Mandi House Friday as hundreds of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) supporters and student activists staged a series of flash protests, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid a massive police deployment.
Carrying a giant Tricolour, a group of protesters took multiple rounds of Connaught Place’s inner circle, while another climbed barricades with flags, banners and placards.
Slogans of ‘Jai Hind’, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and ‘Gyanesh Kumar, ab tumhari baari hai’ rang out across the commercial hub in the heart of the city as the demonstrators moved between locations, dispersing and regrouping while police personnel attempted to clear the area.
The protests and heavy security deployment disrupted commercial activity in Connaught Place and Palika Bazaar, with traders in the two busy market areas growing agitated over the interruption to their businesses.
Police personnel moved through the inner circle of Connaught Place to disperse protesters and ease congestion amid traffic movement and crowds of onlookers.
Among the protesters was 21-year-old Taksh, a student of DY Patil University in Mumbai, who wore a red lehenga and carried a placard reading, “Gyanesh Kumar jaldi istifa do, shaadi ka muhurat nikalta jaa raha hai.”
He said he had been in Delhi for a month to participate in the protests and was attending his university classes online.
“I bought the red lehenga for Rs 2,000,” Taksh said, standing out among the protesters dressed in casual clothes and carrying national flags.
Demonstrators carried placards bearing messages such as “SIR band karo, vote chori band karo”, “Who deleted my vote” and “Police violence is not an accident”. Some protesters sang the national anthem as they marched through Connaught Place, while others raised slogans against the Election Commission and demanded action over the revision of electoral rolls.
Students and members of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) also gathered at Mandi House, demanding Kumar’s resignation, a rollback of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and withdrawal of the 2023 Election Commissioner Appointment Act.
Left leaders, including MPs John Brittas and Sandosh Kumar, also participated in the march along with the Democratic Youth Federation of India.
Minor altercations broke out between protesters and police as personnel attempted to disperse the gatherings. Journalists and independent YouTube reporters were present at the protest sites to cover the demonstrations, with a few independent YouTube journalists being heckled.
The demonstrations were held in response to the CJP’s call for a ‘Lehra Do Tiranga’ march, scheduled to be held at Central Park in Connaught Place at 5 pm.
Police, however, did not grant permission for the march, citing prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which bar mass gatherings in Connaught Place and adjoining areas.
Central Park was closed to the public on Friday and Saturday as security arrangements were stepped up in the area. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who was supposed to lead the march, was detained while leaving his house in the Jhandewalan area to join the protest.
More than 6,000 Delhi Police personnel and 220 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), each comprising around 100 personnel, were deployed in the New Delhi area to prevent any law and order situation.
