The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) trio of Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have lashed out at Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, following the Supreme Court’s observations on Monday, while hearing an unprecedented batch of petitions seeking the suspension of the poll body chief.
The outfit has flooded social media with a host of posts criticising CEC Kumar. CJP founder Dipke called for pertinent charges to be filed against the poll body chief, if the court has found “illegalities.” In a separate post, he questioned how the Form 6 amendments were made without the Supreme Court’s approval. He wrote, “on whose orders did he do it?” He accused the CEC of “serving his political bosses,” and alleged that Gyanesh Kumar was not acting independently. In a blazing remark, he called Kumar “biggest traitor of India.”
The outfit’s co-conveners Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka have also taken aim at the poll body chief. Das, in a series of posts on X, claimed that the Supreme Court had “distanced itself” from what he called one of the CEC’s illegalities. He said Chief Justice Surya Kant had stated in court that the Supreme Court did not approve any changes to Form 6, the form used to register new voters.
Das pointed out that the other two Election Commissioners had objected to the change, saying it was leading to “harassment” of new voters, especially Gen Z applicants who were being stopped from registering. He argued that the form could only have been altered after an amendment to the law and election rules.
He also highlighted the timing of the Election Commission’s press release dated September 26, which said “the declaration attached to Form 6 for SIR has been upheld by the SC.” The release came a day after an Indian Express report on the issue. Das said the CJI’s remarks now contradicted that claim, adding that the court that had given legal cover to the SIR process had washed its hands of the matter. In a separate post, he said the Supreme Court had “thrown Gyanesh Kumar under the bus.”
Ranka, too, called the CJI’s remarks “huge,” saying they were in direct contradiction to the ECI’s September 26 press release. He noted that Form 6 is used for new voter registration and alleged that an “arbitrary declaration” had been added to it unilaterally by the CEC. Ranka further claimed that the press release was no longer available on the ECI website, and asked whether the CEC had “officially lied” to the people of the country.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi also lambasted the CEC following the court’s observations. In a post on X, Gandhi alleged that the poll body chief’s actions were “an assault on democracy” and that the SC’s observations, “established beyond doubt that Gyanesh Kumar changed Form 6 illegally and unilaterally.” He also accused the CEC of “abusing his post.”
