New Delhi

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Thursday demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that more than 13 crore votes had been deleted and questioning whether such action was consistent with democracy.

Dipke alleged that Kumar posed a threat to India’s democracy and claimed that the government was deciding who gets to vote and who does not since Kumar became Chief Election Commissioner.

“In total, more than 13 crore votes have been deleted. This is not a small number,” Dipke said, adding that the alleged deletion amounted to around 13-14 per cent of the total votes.

He questioned whether the alleged deletion was intended to widen the 2 per cent margin between the opposition and the ruling party, referring to the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

“Is Gyanesh Kumar deleting them intentionally to widen that 2% gap so that they never lose office? Why is this being done? What was the need to delete so many votes?..." he asked.

Dipke also alleged that regional political leaders had been targeted and defeated one by one after the BJP failed to secure a majority in the 2024 election.

He claimed that 50,000 votes were deleted from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s constituency, 100,000 from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s constituency and 40,000 from former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s constituency.

“In West Bengal, 50,000 votes were deleted from Mamata Banerjee’s constituency, and she lost by a margin of around 15,000 votes. In MK Stalin’s constituency, 100,000 votes were deleted, and he lost by about 45,000 votes. In Delhi, 40,000 votes were deleted from Arvind Kejriwal’s constituency, and he lost by a margin of 4000-5000 votes,” he said.

He further alleged that vote deletions in Kerala prevented Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from winning.

“This cannot be a mere coincidence; there is a clear pattern,” Dipke said.

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He questioned whether eliminating strong opposition figures was the objective of the alleged exercise and asked whether an election could be considered free and fair if the entire opposition was “wiped out”.

“But in a democracy, if you wipe out the entire opposition, can it still be called a democracy? Is it a free and fair election?" he questioned.