Ajinkya Shinde, a close associate of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke, has been asked to lead the party’s protest over alleged electoral illegalities after Dipke and two other senior leaders were detained.
Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka were taken into custody from the aircraft in which they had arrived from Mumbai this morning, as police attempted to prevent protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar. With the party’s top leadership detained, Shinde has been placed in charge of the CJP protest and its wider movement until the leaders are released.
In a video shared on the CJP handle, Dipke informed supporters that he, Das and Ranka had been arrested and asked them to follow Shinde in their absence.
Shinde, in a statement to supporters, called for them to continue moving towards Jantar Mantar. He said that if they were stopped by the police, they should hold their protest at the spot where they were halted, arguing that the government was afraid of their unity.
Who is Ajinkya Shinde?
Shinde, 35, is a computer science graduate from Maharashtra. Before entering active politics, he worked for an international information technology firm in Pune. He later joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a full-time worker.
His parents were farmers in Alibaug before the family later settled in Latur. Shinde has known Dipke for several years, having first met him in Goa in 2016. The two have worked together since then.
Shinde had earlier served as the AAP convener for Pimpri-Chinchwad. After leaving his job, he spent a year working on the party’s election campaign in Goa, though the AAP did not win a seat there. He subsequently joined the AAP’s Maharashtra team, where he took on the roles of social media coordinator and convener of the party’s Maharashtra youth wing.
In August, Dipke inducted Shinde into the CJP’s national team and gave him responsibility as the national organisation in-charge. His appointment to the party’s national executive committee, however, drew criticism from two Gujarat volunteers, who accused Dipke of favouring his close associates within the organisation.
Within the CJP’s hierarchy, Shinde ranks below Dipke, Ranka and Das. The three senior leaders had emerged as the party’s prominent faces during the paper leak protests in July this year. Shinde’s selection to lead the movement following their detention reflects his position immediately below the top trio in the party structure.
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