Who Is Ajinkya Shinde? CJP Leader in Charge After Abhijeet Dipke’s Detention
Ajinkya Shinde has urged supporters to continue marching towards Jantar Mantar and stage protests wherever they are stopped by the police. The founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), Abhijeet Dipke, has been detained along with other senior leaders of the party. Following their detention, Dipke’s close associate, Ajinkya Shinde, from Maharashtra, has been entrusted with leading the CJP’s protest against alleged electoral irregularities until the other leaders are released.
Dipke announced the decision in a video posted on the CJP’s social media handle. In the video, he said, ‘If you are watching this video, it means that I, Saurav Das, and Ashutosh Ranka have been arrested. In our absence, Ajinkya will lead the protest and the CJP movement. Please follow him.’ Shinde subsequently urged supporters to continue towards Jantar Mantar and turn any location where they are stopped into a protest site. ‘The government is scared of our unity. Please come to Jantar Mantar. If the police stop you, turn that very spot into Jantar Mantar,’ he said in a statement.
Dipke, Das and Ranka were detained from the aircraft in which they had arrived from Mumbai earlier that morning, amid police efforts to prevent protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar.
Who Is Ajinkya Shinde?
Ajinkya Shinde, 35, is a computer science graduate from Maharashtra. Before entering politics, he worked for an international information technology (IT) company in Pune. He later joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a full-time party worker. According to media reports, his parents were farmers in Alibaug before settling in Latur. Shinde has been a close associate of Abhijeet Dipke for several years. The two reportedly first met in Goa in 2016 and have worked together ever since.
Before leaving his job, Shinde served as the AAP convener for Pimpri-Chinchwad. After resigning, he spent a year working on the party’s election campaign in Goa, although the AAP failed to win a seat there. He subsequently joined the AAP’s Maharashtra team, where he served as a social media coordinator and convenor of the party’s Maharashtra youth wing, according to several media reports.
In August, Dipke inducted Shinde into the CJP’s national team and appointed him as the national organisation in-charge. However, his induction into the party’s national executive committee was not without controversy. At the time, two volunteers from Gujarat accused Dipke of favouring his close associates within the CJP.
Within the party hierarchy, Shinde ranks just below Dipke, Ranka and Das, who emerged as the party’s prominent faces during the paper leak protests in July this year. His appointment to lead the movement following the detention of the three senior leaders further highlights his position and influence within the party.
