Amid the ongoing EC-SIR row, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday backed Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke's call for a nationwide protest if Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar did not resign by Saturday.
The development came amid a row over the electoral process and the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls following a media report.
CJP founder Dipke on Friday announced that he would launch a nationwide protest from Mumbai if CEC Kumar did not resign by Saturday and expand it to cities across India on October 2. He further wrote, “This Gandhi Jayanti, let’s pledge to save democracy."
What did Aaditya Thackeray say?
The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader backed Dipke's demand for Kumar's resignation. In a post on X replying to Dipke's post, he wrote, “If Gyanesh doesn’t go, Mumbai will step out against Vote Chori from 2nd October, in huge numbers!!”
Earlier on Thursday, Thackeray wrote in another post on X, "The timeline for the CEC to go has been set. India has now decided to not bow down to the regime that has stolen votes and elections and has decided to finish off India’s democracy and our Constitution.
Change is coming; each one responsible for the lost decade of our country must be brought to justice."
Dipke responds to Thackeray's remarks
Responding to the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, the CJP founder thanked him for backing their call to “save democracy”.
“All Indians, irrespective of their political parties or ideologies, must come together against S.I.R.," Dipke posted.
CJP on Thursday called for CEC Gyanesh Kumar to resign and threatened a "Jantar Mantar 2.0" protest if the demand was not accepted.
The CJP's warning comes amid a row that erupted after a report by The Indian Express pointed to a severe internal rift within Election Commission. The report stated that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had repeatedly objected to decisions made by CEC Gyanesh Kumar, triggering an intense debate over the integrity of the voter database.
The reported objections related to key parts of electoral-roll management, including adding, removing, and restoring voters, changes to Form 6, and access to the Election Commission's electoral-roll database.
The opposition has demanded the cancellation of the SIR exercise and the impeachment and arrest of Gyanesh Kumar.
However, the Election Commission rejected the idea of an institutional breakdown saying that differences of opinion, written notes, and internal checks were all part of the decision-making process in a multi-member constitutional body. The poll panel remarked that its decisions were unanimous.