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On November 1, the India Alliance held a 'maharali' at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Leaders and workers of Congress, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Trinamool Congress, National Conference, Left parties and other political parties were present in this rally.
Congress and Samajwadi Party gave their full strength to make this rally successful.
In the background of this rally, there are allegations of alleged irregularities in the voter list, claims of vote theft and demand for resignation of Gyanesh Kumar.
Although the opposition parties were opposing the SIR process since its inception last year, the demand for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation was raised by the cockroach Janata Party (CJP) led by Abhijeet Deepke.
On September 24, CJP launched the 'Fix the Election Commission' campaign and demanded the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar within 48 hours.
At the same time, on October 2, CJP held a big demonstration in Mumbai, while student organizations tried to demonstrate at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
After this the demand for resignation of Gyanesh Kumar became a big issue. CJP called for a big protest on October 10. Before the mega rally on 1 November, Congress also held several demonstrations under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
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Now on November 1, when the India Alliance held a big rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi with this main demand, the CJP leadership stayed away from it.
Although CJP had announced its support for the India Alliance rally on October 28, CJP remained away from it during the rally on Sunday.
On October 28, CJP founder Abhijit Deepke said in a post on X, "Gyanu has to go, CJP supports India Bloc's November 1 rally, nation is paramount."
However, in a statement on Sunday, Deepke said, "We support the rally, but will not participate in the rally."
Deepke said that he supports the issue of the rally, but wants to maintain his independent identity.
He said, "We are together, but CJP is an independent and neutral organization and we want to keep it like that."
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After meeting former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, Deepke said, "Anyone who fights against vote theft, we will support him."
Many CJP workers were definitely seen at Ramlila Maidan, but no big face was seen on the stage nor did anyone make any statement.
A young woman, who has been participating in CJP's protests, told BBC News Hindi, "I am associated with CJP and have also come to Ramlila Maidan today. You will see many more workers like me here. Actually, our issue is the same."
She says, "CJP wants change in the system and this is why youth like me feel connected with CJP. I believe that joining this rally against vote theft is not support for any political party."
A person accompanying the girl told BBC News Hindi, "Not many people associated with CJP have come to this rally. Some youth have definitely come, who are continuously participating in the protest."
CJP worker Mohammad Junaid, while talking to the media at Ramlila Maidan, said, "CJP does not seem to be lax. Many CJP workers and Zen-G protesters have also come to Ramlila Maidan. We all have the same objective and we are all together. Whatever strategy CJP has, it will be visible very soon and a call will be given soon."
However, Neha Bora, president of student organization AISA, was on the stage and also gave a speech.
Neha Bora said in her aggressive style, "Who are you to ask the people of India to prove your citizenship?"
Workers of many other student organizations were also seen in large numbers in the rally held at Ramlila Maidan.
In such a situation, the question is arising whether keeping distance from India Block's Maharally is CJP's strategy or compulsion?
Does CJP not want to be seen with any political platform?
On this question, senior journalist Vijay Trivedi says that CJP's staying away from this rally could be its strategy as well as a compulsion.
Vijay Trivedi says, "I think not appearing political is part of their strategy. You can call it compulsion or strategy, it can be both."
According to him, it is important for CJP to keep its identity separate because when it participated in the protests against the Election Commission, it was criticized that a non-political movement was now becoming political.
Trivedi says, "When he was first joining the movement and talking about the Election Commission, there was a lot of criticism that it was a non-political movement. Earlier he was not talking about politics and now he has come into politics. This may have been an attempt to avoid that allegation."
However, Trivedi also believes that the possibility of some kind of pressure on CJP cannot be completely ruled out.
He says, "It is also possible that there may be some pressure from the government and they want to keep distance from it."
According to Trivedi, the biggest challenge for CJP is that its movement against Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has not yet shown widespread public support.
He says, "Common people are not joining the movement of Rahul Gandhi and India Block against the Election Commission in large numbers, somewhere this protest has become political. There were more workers of political parties in Sunday's rally. Common people were not in that large numbers."
Vijay Trivedi also believes that at present, to move forward, CJP not only needs an issue but also needs contact between the organization and the public.
Trivedi says, "To bring the public, organization and system are needed. Only the issue does not work. Congress has a system and it mobilized the crowd on this issue. There is confusion in CJP whether it will be able to unite people on this issue or not."
Trivedi believes that it will not be easy for CJP to decide how active to be in the future regarding the demand for Gyanesh Kumar's resignation.
He says, "Their biggest problem is that they have youth associated with them and this issue is not attracting the youth that much. Now they will be confused as to how much support they will get if they move forward."
Giving support and sitting on the stage are different things
According to senior journalist Adesh Rawal, an important reason for CJP's distance could be that it does not want to associate its identity with any political party or alliance.
Rawal says, "I think at the moment he does not want to be seen with any political party. If any such situation arises in the future, due to which a big movement arises, then he will be accused that you had already gone to one side."
According to Rawal, an attempt was also made by the India Alliance to bring CJP along.
He says that during a meeting of opposition parties under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and discussion over tea, Abhijeet Deepke was also contacted. But at that time the talks could not progress due to Deepke's arrest and other developments.
Rawal says, "Opposition parties are repeatedly saying that this is the same protest, not two different protests. They do not want to show that we are protesting at two different places."
According to him, this time also the opposition parties tried to bring CJP along and welcomed its support, but CJP decided to maintain its independent identity.
Rawal says, "Giving support is a different thing. Going and sitting on the stage is a different thing. Considering the future of agitating politics, CJP is hesitating to come with the India Bloc and to some extent this strategy of CJP is also right."
Will CJP protest further?
Image source: Arun Kumar/The India Today Group via Getty Images
CJP founder Abhijeet Deepke had talked about preparing for the protest again after Diwali.
In such a situation, the question is whether the organization will continue to be active in demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar?
Vijay Trivedi believes that CJP might be thinking of going ahead on this issue, but it is not yet clear how much support it will get.
At the same time, Adesh Rawal says that politics is a game of possibilities and the future of any movement cannot be decided in advance.
Rawal gives the example of the movement against paper leak in July. According to him, the large participation of youth and their parents in that movement had put pressure on the government.
Rawal says, "When there was a paper leak issue, every house was connected to it. Every parent was worried about their children. It was an issue that was connected to every house."
According to him, the issue of vote theft is also related to every household, but the same kind of widespread participation in it has not been seen yet.
Rawal believes that CJP has played a role in conveying its message to the young generation.
According to him, there are possibilities of further movement for CJP and it can remain relevant in the battle of political narrative.
What does CJP distance tell?
Analysts believe that seeing CJP's distance from the India Block Maharally only as its absence would be an incomplete understanding of this development.
On one hand, the organization raised the demand for resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and supported the grand rally of India Alliance. On the other hand, he avoided his presence on the stage.
Both Vijay Trivedi and Adesh Rawal believe that CJP is cautious about its identity. It wants to emerge as a movement organization which does not appear to be associated with any political party or alliance.
However, analysts also believe that this strategy also faces a challenge.
Trivedi says, "To keep a movement effective for a long time, mere issue and discussion on social media are not enough. It also needs widespread public support, organizational structure and the ability to remain active continuously."
There was a large presence of workers of political parties in the grand rally of India Alliance, but questions were raised regarding the participation of common people.
Published by Collective Newsroom for the BBC.
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