New Delhi | Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Tuesday alleged that Maharashtra Police were putting pressure on party activists ahead of the organisation’s planned protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on October 10.

Addressing a press conference in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Dipke claimed that Chandrapur police had served notices on CJP activists, asking them not to participate in the proposed agitation and questioning them about the source of funds for their travel to Delhi.

The CJP has announced the October 10 protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

“I have said multiple times that the Maharashtra Police is the best police force in the country, and the Delhi Police should learn from them. But it is heartbreaking that the Chandrapur police served notices to CJP workers, telling them not to participate in the agitation at Jantar Mantar,” Dipke said.

He questioned the basis for anticipating that the proposed demonstration could turn violent and objected to alleged directions to activists against making social media posts that could potentially lead to violence.

“We speak about (Mahatma) Gandhi and B R Ambedkar. Do they think it is violent?” he asked. Dipke also criticised the BJP-led government over its “One Nation, One Election” proposal, claiming that while the stated formulation was “one nation, one election”, the alleged objective was “one nation, one political party”.

The proposed protest comes amid opposition criticism over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and reports of differences within the three-member Election Commission.

The Election Commission has rejected claims of a split within the poll panel and maintained that decisions relating to the SIR exercise were taken unanimously. The allegations made by Dipke could not be independently verified.