Paswan urges talks, Manjhi fires
3 min readPatnaOct 10, 2026 07:59 PM IST
First published on: Oct 10, 2026 at 07:58 PM IST
With several political leaders and protesters detained in Delhi during the Cockroach Janata Party-backed Delhi protest demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, the NDA’s Bihar allies struck differing notes on the Centre’s handling of the demonstration.
While the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha called for dialogue with the youth, the Janata Dal (United) remained non-committal, while the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) backed the Centre said that “lions should not be afraid of cockroaches and crickets”.
Several political leaders and protesters — including Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan, Abhijeet Dipke and Neha Bora — were detained in the national capital during the protest.
RLM chief and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha told The Indian Express that issues concerning the youth should be addressed through discussions.
The LJP (RV) echoed this position. “Our leader Chirag Paswan has already said the youth of India cannot be stopped and has asked the Opposition to put forward its grievances before the ECI,” a party leader said.
The remarks came a day after LJP (RV) chief Paswan said, “No one could stop the youth of India. Those who are trying to create such illusions – how many trains can one stop, how much connectivity can one disrupt, how many roads can be blocked?”
JD(U) national spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad declined to comment. Another party leader said the JD(U) would speak “when the time comes”. The party had not taken an official position on the protests but was watching developments closely from the sidelines, the leader said.
Meanwhile, the HAM(S) appeared to back the Centre’s curbs on the Delhi protests. In a post on X, party patron and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said: “India is land of lions. Bharat Mata has produced lions like PM Narendra Modi and (Home Minister) Amit Shah, who are afraid neither of cockroaches nor of crickets. They know how to deal with them.”
Meanwhile, in a post on Saturday morning, RJD leader and ex-Deputy CM of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav said, “We’ve been saying even before the Bihar elections that Modi-Shah are conspiring to win the elections dishonestly with the help of the Election Commission. First and foremost, from Bihar, the birthplace of democracy, they started SIR to hatch a conspiracy to end democracy.”
