Mumbai: Veteran actors Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, along with singer-composer Vishal Dadlani, joined a protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park on Friday. The demonstration was centred on demands for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and concerns raised by the organisers over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The gathering, held on Gandhi Jayanti, drew thousands of young protesters, activists and members of student organisations. The CJP had announced a “Jail Bharo Andolan” as part of its campaign and had called for the protest despite Mumbai Police denying permission for the gathering.
Film personalities join demonstration
Naseeruddin Shah was among the prominent personalities seen at the protest. A video shared by CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke showed Shah meeting and embracing him at the venue. Vishal Dadlani also joined the demonstration, while Shabana Azmi addressed the gathering. Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, singer Rekha Bhardwaj and activist Tushar Gandhi were also reported to have participated or extended support.
Actor Nasruddin reached Shivaji Park with CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke.
Protest has started in Mumbai in Shivaji Park
Protest for Ganesh Kumar’s resignation has started in Shivaji Park, Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/ZixuZIFnEm
— Gulab_Dharkar9711 (@Gulab_Dharkar97) October 2, 2026
Shabana Azmi said that voting is a fundamental democratic right and argued that citizens should use democratic means to protest if their names are removed from electoral rolls. She had also participated in an earlier protest in Delhi.
Anti-national desh-drohi jihadi lady, Shabana Azmi who’s also the wife of an another same kinda person who claims himself as secular also joins the fraudster CJP protest in Mumbai.
The toolkit is working as planned and everyone received what’s due for them and doing their part pic.twitter.com/gB8n7o41lk
— Avinash K S🇮🇳 (@AvinashKS14) October 2, 2026
What is the CJP protesting against?
The CJP, led by Abhijeet Dipke, is demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Among its demands are greater transparency in the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and a freeze on the 2025 electoral roll, which the organisation says should not be altered further.
The immediate backdrop is a recent Indian Express investigation reporting that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over a 10-month period concerning certain decisions and orders related to electoral-roll revision and SIR. The report said some objections concerned decisions that the two commissioners stated had been made without their knowledge or approval.
The issue has subsequently become the subject of legal and political scrutiny, including petitions challenging aspects of the Election Commission’s functioning and the electoral-roll revision process.
Election Commission’s position
The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that the reported objections represented a breakdown in decision-making. The Commission has maintained that observations by individual Election Commissioners form part of the normal deliberative process and that decisions relating to electoral-roll revision, including SIR, were taken unanimously by the three-member Commission.
The ECI has also ordered a special drive to enrol voters who may have been left out during the SIR exercise, including people whose names appeared in earlier rolls but are absent from the current rolls, as well as first-time and young voters. The Commission said voter enrolment remains a continuous process and that eligible citizens should not lose the opportunity to register merely because they were not included during SIR enumeration.
Thousands gather at Shivaji Park
Despite the police denial of permission, a large crowd gathered around Shivaji Park, with heavy security arrangements and barricades deployed in the surrounding area. Protesters carried placards and raised slogans directed at the CEC. Student groups including the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) were also reported to have joined the demonstration.
The participation of Azmi, Shah and Dadlani gave the Mumbai demonstration considerable attention, turning the CJP’s agitation into a prominent public gathering focused on questions surrounding electoral rolls, the SIR exercise and the functioning of the Election Commission.
In short, the Mumbai protest brought together students, activists and several prominent figures from the film and music industries, while the underlying dispute remains centred on the Election Commission’s handling of electoral-roll revision and competing claims about transparency and decision-making.
