CJP workers detained in Assam allege no food for 24 hours: ‘Who can survive on one banana?’

A Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) activist has alleged that the Assam police did not provide food to the detained volunteers for 24 hours.

This comes as several CJP volunteers were detained in Guwahati on Sunday on their way to the venue of the party’s first volunteers’ meet.

Those detained included the pressure group’s National Co-Convenor Ashutosh Ranka, East and North-East In-charge Ankit Bhardwaj, Joint Secretary Premakash Golu, and Assam Coordinator Sahil.

"It was illegal detention... The police did not even provide us with food. Who can survive on just one banana for 24 hours? There were 32 of us. Everyone has been released," CJP leader Anam told news agency PTI after being released along with other detainees.

CJP raises concerns

In a statement, the CJP raised serious concerns about the legal basis for the detentions, stating that the authorities had failed to provide any official order or legal grounds.

The party alleged that the Assam Police had acted at the behest of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to block a peaceful assembly of young citizens.

“This is a direct attempt to suppress democratic dialogue and intimidate volunteers who have come together to raise public issues. Such measures will not deter our movement, and we will continue to work peacefully and democratically in Assam,” the party said in the statement.

Addressing the media at Chowdhury Tila, opposite the Assam Secretariat, where the contingent had been detained, Ashutosh Ranka outlined the CJP’s organisational plans and campaigns for Assam and the wider Northeast.

He said that Assam underwent a Special Revision (SR), rather than a Special Intensive Revision (SIR), involving door-to-door verification without a general requirement for voters to submit documents.

Ranka also raised concerns about Assam’s 2023 constituency delimitation, citing residents’ accounts that a single village had been divided across multiple electoral areas, placing neighbours in different Legislative Assembly constituencies.

“These arrangements amount to deliberate gerrymandering and were designed to benefit chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma politically. The chief minister cannot evade accountability. We demand scrutiny of these boundaries against official constituency maps and delimitation records,” Ranka alleged.

These allegations concern constituency delimitation, which is distinct from the SR of electoral rolls.

Ranka also announced that the party will continue its “School Thik Karo” campaign through volunteer visits to government schools to document infrastructure, teacher availability, and basic facilities, and to press the authorities for accountability.

Ranka said that CJP would establish volunteer units across the northeastern states, prioritising Assam, to strengthen local organising, document public grievances, and coordinate ongoing campaigns through volunteer meetings, school visits, scrutiny of electoral roll revisions, and public outreach.