The founders of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), namely, Abhijeet Dipke, YouTube influencer Dhruv Rathee, and actor Prakash Raj have been leading a protest march in Bengaluru city on Thursday, October 8, 2026.
These activists have been calling for the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar due to irregularities in the process of SIR of voter lists by the Election Commission.
The primary demands were the withdrawal of the SIR exercise and the resignation of Kumar, as per the Free Press Journal.
According to the Daily Jagran, the other demands were the prosecution of Kumar and the stoppage of the SIR.
The organizers termed it as a "people's tribunal" for those who have been affected by the SIR from Karnataka, as reported by DT Next.
The next program on the agenda was "chappal protest" in support of women. This program was supposed to commence at 10.30 am as stated in the Daily Jagran.
A number of people from various walks of life, including women and students, participated in the protest, according to DT Next. The atmosphere was called electrifying with continuous chanting of slogans.
Some of the slogans were “Error 404 – Name Not Found,” “It’s done, bro, resign, sir," and “Don’t erase us, hear us.”
Some other slogans chanted were “Dictatorship will not be tolerated,” “vote theft," and “Gyanesh Kumar Gaddi, leave your chair.”
Onmanorama uploaded a picture of Dipke, Rathee, Prakash Raj, and others taking each other’s hand at the location.
One of the protesters was Mujibur Rehman, who is a software engineer from Bengaluru. Rehman claims that his name was struck off from the electoral rolls without his knowledge.
"Because it is our democratic right," Rehman was quoted as saying by Free Press Journal. The allegation made by Rehman is an individual one, which cannot be verified from the information available.
Thursday's protest is one among many others against Kumar. On October 2, CJP had organized a protest rally in Shivaji Park, Mumbai, from where around 700 people were detained.
On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi participated in a protest march with the INDIA group heading towards the Election Commission, as was mentioned previously. The protest rally in Bengaluru further proves that the movement is expanding into other cities.
The calls for Kumar’s resignation are not recent even within Parliament itself. In April 2026, notices were filed by members of the opposition in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha requesting his ouster.
This was something that had never been done before, says News On Air. C. P. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, refused to entertain the notices after due deliberation.
It is clear from the stance maintained by the Election Commission that their decisions, including the decision regarding SIR, were made by all three members of the commission in an unanimous manner.
However, no new statement from the Commission regarding the demonstration held in Bengaluru on Thursday has been found.
The reports analyzed did not provide information on crowd size of the demonstration in Bengaluru. Police crackdowns and arrests were not also mentioned in relation to the protest in Bengaluru.
It is also uncertain whether the Commission will react to the demand to stop the SIR.
The "chappal protest" was supposed to take place after the tribunal that was to be held at Freedom Park. This issue is not mentioned anywhere in the sources referred to by me.
Kumar continues to serve in his post, and there has been no official move towards ousting him yet.
