Police crackdown brings Delhi to a standstill; CJP protest fails to reach Jantar Mantar

NEW DELHI: The national capital was left choking on Saturday as the police stepped up efforts to suppress protests while demonstrators tried every possible way to reach protest venues. The situation tightened after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) joined the agitation, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Senior leaders from across the country and Left student and youth organisations clashed with the police alongside CJP members. As a result, roadsides turned into protest venues.

The government's strategy of preventing protesters from entering Jantar Mantar and thereby weakening the agitation worked to some extent. However, the situation threatened to worsen further after the protesters announced that they would continue their agitation until Gyanesh Kumar resigned.

The police detained four former chief ministers, including Pinarayi Vijayan, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Manik Sarkar.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and party leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Rank were detained after police entered an aircraft to take them into custody. Dipke appointed his close associate Ajinkya Shinde to lead the protest. Popular influencer Dhruv Rathee was placed under preventive detention early in the morning.

Although the national capital was under a tight police cordon, students managed to break through the security arrangements and reach a point just metres away from the Election Commission office. Around 7,000 protesters were detained and taken to stadiums.

Kerala Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan, who marched towards Jantar Mantar from Kerala House, was taken into custody. He was driven around the city in a police vehicle for nearly three and a half hours.

The protests are likely to continue on Sunday. AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal announced that a massive protest would be held in Delhi on Monday. Demonstrations were also reported in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Punjab on Saturday.

Supreme Court may hold special sitting today

• Despite the Supreme Court's directions that the public should not be inconvenienced, the police continued their crackdown without restraint. Advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi filed a contempt petition, pointing out the police action. Although Sunday is a holiday, the Supreme Court may hold a special sitting today.
• Barricades have been set up at every corner of the city, and police are only letting people pass after checking their IDs to ensure they aren't protesters. The closure of 45 metro stations also caused severe inconvenience to the public.

Leaders released

M.A. Baby, Brinda Karat, M.V. Govindan, A. Vijayaraghavan, K.K. Shailaja, P.K. Sreemathy, Thomas Isaac, P. Rajeeve, T.P. Ramakrishnan, Aishe Ghosh, MPs P. Santhosh Kumar, A.A. Rahim, V. Sivadasan and Elamaram Kareem, along with Aparajita Raja, Neha Bora, B.V. Raghavulu, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, were among those detained. They were released late at night.