NEW DELHI: The Congress’ efforts to bring civil society on board for its protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar have seen limited success, but an attempt was made to reach out to the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) through advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday, people aware of the details said. According to the sources, Bhushan tried to bring the CJP leadership to a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders hosted by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi at his residence on Tuesday evening.
The CJP, however, did not attend the meeting. There was no formal discussion regarding the outfit during the gathering, the insiders noted. The Congress’ invite signals a shift in stance, given that the party has previously dismissed the CJP as a “proxy” of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and categorized it as an activist group rather than a recognized political outfit. Gandhi’s willingness to accommodate the CJP in the meeting, however, shifted that perception, sources said.
The move comes at a time when the Congress leadership is actively urging civil society and various organizations to join protests against Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
On Monday, Gandhi sought to blur the lines between opposition protests, student agitations, and CJP demonstrations, declaring that all of them constituted “one protest.” “All protests are one protest. There are no parallel protests. We don’t care who you are,” he stated, while characterizing the CJP’s efforts as an instance where “students tried to protest.”
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