Congress-led alliance calls major protests in Delhi on Monday, 'cockroaches' to continue demos

The INDIA bloc, India’s opposition and secularist alliance led by Congress, is gearing up for a mega protest on Monday, sources told the Hindustan Times.

Furthermore, the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which called Saturday’s protest, has vowed to march to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi again on Sunday and continue its agitation until all its demands are met.

These developments came as the crackdown in Delhi continued on Saturday amid protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll revisions – a practice that allegedly excluded Muslim voters and unfairly benefitted the ruling BJP.

Trinamool Congress Chief chief and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to stay in the national capital and join INDIA bloc's protest on Monday.

Banerjee reversed her travel plans and decided to extend her stay in Delhi, canceling her scheduled return to Kolkata.

Meanwhile, on Saturday afternoon, Banerjee was detained after she launched a sit-in protest in New Delhi.

The police also detained Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee for joining the protest.

Rathee, who lives abroad, had come to join the demonstration against the CEC. He was detained from his residence in Gurugram.

The protest and opposition leaders were later released.

However, the United Nations Human Rights Office had already expressed concern over reports of mass detentions of protesters, civil society members, lawyers and journalists in India ahead of and during Saturday’s demonstrations in Delhi.

Amid the protests, 45 metro stations were affected in Delhi.

Meanwhile, AAP convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was detained by Delhi Police on Saturday after he stepped out to protest over the CEC row.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, BJP leader Sambit Patra called Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a "nalayak" (worthless) leader, condemning his Friday remarks that President Droupadi Murmu did not deny the INDIA bloc's "vote theft" allegation at a meeting.

"Yesterday a few politicians visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The statement of Rahul Gandhi after coming out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan was like that of a 'nalayak neta' (worthless leader)," Patra said.

"Never before was an attempt made to drag the President into a street protest. But a 'nalayak neta' (worthless leader) attempted to do that. The anarchist Rahul Gandhi tried to pull the President of India to the anarchism, which he is trying his best to conduct on the streets of India," the leader added.

TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, who had returned to Kolkata, will also travel to Delhi and take part in the protest on Monday.