Aman Verma & Vithaldas Hegde
Goa will be the next stop in the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) nationwide campaign demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with the State unit preparing an agitation between October 9 and 11. CJP Media Lead and South India Incharge Vijay Reddy Mallangi confirmed the Goa programme to O Heraldo on Friday, saying the venue and timing would be announced shortly. “We will hold a protest in Goa next weekend. It will be organised between October 9 and 11, and the venue and timing will be intimated shortly. We will hold a press conference within the next two to three days in Goa to announce the full details,” Mallangi told O Heraldo from Mumbai.
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The first details of the Goa action plan are expected to emerge at a press conference scheduled for October 5, when the State unit will outline its structure, campaign priorities and the proposed form of the agitation. “CJP Goa is also holding a press conference on October 5, where we will share more details,” the member said. “Our spokesperson will address these questions, along with other questions that people may have, in greater detail at the press conference.”
The Goa programme follows the launch of the CJP’s nationwide campaign in Mumbai on October 2. Founder Abhijeet Dipke announced that the campaign would subsequently move through several States, including Goa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, before a further agitation in Delhi later this month if its demands are not met. The campaign is ultimately planned to culminate in a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
The agitation is centred on the CJP’s demand for Kumar’s resignation and its objections to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The organisation has demanded that the SIR process be frozen, the January 2025 electoral roll restored and an independent inquiry conducted. It has also called for an independent mechanism, with civil society participation, to appoint the next Chief Election Commissioner.
The Goa unit is seeking to give the national campaign a local footing rather than portray the proposed agitation as merely an extension of the Mumbai protest. “This is not a CJP agitation. This is a problem that concerns every voter and every citizen of India,” said Faiz Shaikh, the social media admin for Goa CJP, responding to an email from O Heraldo on behalf of the organisation.
The unit said its immediate objective in Goa would be to raise awareness about electoral rights and encourage voters to engage with the issue. “What we hope to awaken among Goan voters is awareness: that people must understand what is happening to their electoral rights and recognise that this is not somebody else’s problem,” the member said. “It concerns every individual who has a vote.”
The State unit is still building its organisation and says it is relying on volunteers and local participation rather than an established political machinery. “Its structure is still evolving, but it is being built around volunteers, participation and local involvement,” the member said.
It also sought to distinguish the forthcoming visit by Dipke and the central leadership from an externally imposed campaign. “When Abhijeet Dipke and the central CJP team come to Goa, we want people to see that this is not simply a campaign being imported from somewhere,” the member said. “There is a local structure being built here, with local people taking ownership of the issues that affect them.”
The Goa unit has also sought to frame the campaign around the State’s social character, particularly its tradition of communal coexistence. “Goa is important because it has a very strong tradition of communal harmony,” the CJP Goa member said, pointing to Hindus, Muslims, Christians and people of other faiths living alongside one another. “Goa has its own social fabric, and that is an important part of why it matters to this movement,” the member said.
