Ahead of the Cockroach Janta Party’s march on Friday, a call for regime change by senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan sparked a massive row with the BJP terming ongoing protests as “anything but democratic”.Speaking at the same press conference where CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke urged everyone to turn up at tomorrow’s march to protect their right to vote, Bhushan backed regime change.“We all want a regime change. Is there anything wrong with that?” Bhushan said arguing that seeking a change of government through democratic means was not an offence.He said criticism of the government could not be treated as criminal unless accompanied by violence or an attempt to disturb public order.These remarks followed AISA president Neha Bora’scomments in a now viral video where she is heard praising the Bangladeshi youth for toppling the Sheikh Hasina government.“You showed us the way,” she said offering “red salute to the youth of Bangladesh” in a video message sent to Bangladesh’s Socialist Students’ Front (SSF). Bora drew comparisons between Bangladesh’s 2024 Gen-Z student uprising that ousted Hasina and the ongoing student demonstrations in Delhi.Today, Bhushan and Bora joined Dipke in a joint press conference by the CJP, Left affiliated students’ unions, including AISA and SFI, actor Prakash Raj and others.Bora left the venue soon after making her speech, while Dipke questioned the deletion of 13 crore voters from the electoral rolls saying, “The margin of victory in 2024 was just 2 per cent. Over 13 crore voters deleted — around 14 per cent. Where 2 per cent is deciding the election, you are deleting 13 crore votes. What is this if not a setting?” Dipke said, urging support for tomorrow’s march.The BJP, meanwhile, slammed the CJP and its supporters as “anarchic”, reiterating their long-held apprehension that the agitation was veering off the democratic path.BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari alleged that Bora’s Bangladesh remarks, Bhushan’s comments and Rahul Gandhi’s association with the protesters pointed to an “anarchic” political agenda.He sought Rahul’s clarification on whether the Congress leader supported a Bangladesh-like movement in India. Questioning Bhushan, Bhandari also said in a parliamentary democracy, people’s mandate was determined by elections, not street mobilisation. The BJP leader cited high voter turnouts in recent elections as evidence of people’s abiding faith in democratic institutions.Meanwhile, the Delhi Police late today offered an alternate route for Tiranga march to the CJP, after the New Delhi Municipal Corporation declared Dipke’s announced location — Connaught Place’s Central Park — closed for October 16 and 17.The police said Central Park was not a designated protest site.