As the Centre braces for a large-scale protest against alleged vote theft by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) here on Saturday, and with the Congress-led INDIA bloc continuing its agitation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar for the past four days, Home Minister Amit Shah has remained in Delhi, monitoring the situation.Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan has directed all state chief secretaries to exercise maximum caution ahead of the protest.In a letter, Mohan cited a 2018 Supreme Court order and said the advisory had been issued in view of specific intelligence inputs indicating possible attempts to disturb public order. States and Union Territories have been asked to keep police personnel on alert at their borders, monitor the movement of disruptive elements and maintain continuous coordination with Delhi Police, sources familiar with the communication said.The letter also referred to what it described as a “documented history of non-compliance with lawful directions” by the CJP and supporting organisations during previous agitations. It noted that participants from other states had joined earlier protests, resulting in public-order disruptions.Shah, who was scheduled to visit Telangana, Mizoram and Meghalaya between October 4 and 5, cancelled the trips and subsequently postponed a planned visit to Manipur on October 7 amid the protests led by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.Sources said, with the INDIA bloc continuing to demand Gyanesh’s resignation and the CJP’s October 10 protest, Shah has been closely coordinating with security chiefs and Intelligence Bureau Director Mahesh Dixit to ensure that the situation does not escalate.The sources drew parallels with the events of July, when the use of pellet guns against protesters by police and paramilitary personnel triggered a major backlash and prompted an internal inquiry into the conduct of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel.They also cautioned that, amid the volatile atmosphere, there was a risk of anti-social elements exploiting the protests to instigate violence and create disorder. They pointed to the Centre’s designation of the Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN) as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) last month.In its notification, the government said the outfit, led by Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti, posed a “serious threat to the democratic system, communal harmony and internal security of the country” through its terrorist activities.On Independence Day, more than 200 people were arrested in a nationwide anti-terror operation reportedly linked to the SBN.Security agencies are also working to prevent what officials have described as the infiltration of “disruptive elements” into the ongoing protests.