‘Just came to thank Didi’: Dipke meets Mamata, says CJP won’t join INDIA bloc rally

Mamata Banerjee invited Dipke and other activists to West Bengal.

NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke met former chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee in the national capital and thanked her for supporting the outfit’s youth-led protests on Saturday.The CJP leader also said that his party would maintain its independent identity and not join the INDIA bloc’s rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, even as it stood in solidarity with the cause.Dipke said he had called on Mamata to express gratitude for her support during CJP’s first protest at Jantar Mantar over the NEET paper leak issue and when its leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were arrested by Delhi Police.“I just came to say thank you to Didi because the way she supported our first Jantar Mantar movement, she was always so strongly with the youth movement. When Saurav and Ashutosh were arrested by the Delhi Police, even then Didi stood with us very firmly,” he said.Asked whether CJP would participate in Sunday’s rally at Ramlila Maidan, Dipke said the organisation supported the protest but would continue to function independently.“We support the protest tomorrow, we stand in solidarity, but the Cockroach Janta Party is an independent organisation; it is a neutral platform, and we want to keep it that way,” he said.Dipke said that CJP would support any organisation campaigning against alleged electoral irregularities. “Anybody who will fight against this vote theft, we will support all organisations,” he added.Mamata, who is in Delhi to attend Sunday’s rally also praised Dipke and the young activists for their role in protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the Election Commission.

“They have extended their full support for tomorrow’s rally, and we have extended all support to them as well. They are the pioneers and the founders of this movement. That we must remember,” she told reporters.She also invited Dipke and other activists to West Bengal to organise programmes, leaving it to them to decide whether to hold an event in Kolkata.Earlier on October 16, Mamata had condemned the Delhi Police’s detention of Abhijeet Dipke, describing it as the “conduct of a fascist regime that cannot tolerate a voice it can’t control.”The INDIA bloc’s rally on Sunday is expected to focus on alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and demand accountability from the Election Commission.