New Delhi, 24 September 2026 – Spokesperson and leader of the Cockroach Janata Party Saurav Das and Abhijit Dipike today addressed a press conference at the Press Club of India in Delhi over the ongoing controversy surrounding the Election Commission of India.
Citing recent media reports and the protest by the Indian Youth Congress outside Nirvachan Sadan, the leaders said the controversy over the Special Intensive Revision has raised serious questions about the functioning of the poll body.
Referring to reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions between October 2025 and August 2026 over decisions related to electoral rolls, Form 6 changes and centralisation of the ERONet system, the CJP leaders alleged that the Commission was not functioning on the principle of unanimity or majority as mandated under the law.
At the press conference, the party put forward three key demands to ensure transparency and accountability in the electoral process.
First, it demanded the resignation of and action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that decisions were taken without taking fellow Election Commissioners into confidence and that the CEC’s conduct was illegal and autocratic.
Second, it demanded that decisions of the ECI such as the Special Intensive Revision be cancelled and that elections be conducted on the basis of the old voter list, arguing that lakhs of genuine voters were deleted during the exercise as evidenced by restoration in over nine out of ten appeals against deletion and discrepancies flagged in West Bengal and Delhi.
Third, it demanded scrapping of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Appointment Act, 2023 and creation of a new and more independent appointment mechanism, citing the Supreme Court observation by Justice Dipankar Datta that replacing the Chief Justice of India with a Union Minister on the selection panel fails the perception test.
The leaders said the Election Commission is a constitutional institution responsible for protecting the right to vote and that internal dissent notes cannot be dismissed as routine deliberations. They urged the President and the Supreme Court to intervene, audit the voter roll database and restore public confidence in the electoral process.
