Cockroach Janta Party (CJP): How Abhijeet Dipke's collective became an online sensation<br>Skip to content
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India has a new political superstar - a cockroach
9 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on Google
Zoya MateenDelhi
AI-generated image/Cockroach Janta Party
The Cockroach Janta Party has used AI-generated images to promote its cause online
Indian politics has acquired an unusual mascot: the cockroach.
A satirical collective that takes inspiration from the insect – stubborn, reviled and considered indestructible – has attracted millions of online followers and mainstream media attention in less than a week, making even veteran politicians sit up and take notice.
The cockroach was thrust into the spotlight last week after controversial comments made by India's Chief Justice Surya Kant. During a hearing, he allegedly compared unemployed young people drifting towards journalism and activism with cockroaches and parasites.
He later clarified that he was referring specifically to people with "fake and bogus degrees", not India's youth more broadly.
But by then the comments had already spread widely online, triggering outrage, jokes - and a humorous political idea called the Cockroach Janta Party (Cockroach People's Party), or CJP. The name is a parody of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power since 2014. Critics and rights groups have alleged that press freedom and civil liberties have declined since then, which the BJP denies.
The CJP is not a formal political party but an online movement built around political satire. Its tongue-in-cheek membership criteria include being unemployed, lazy, chronically online and having "the ability to rant professionally".
It was created by Abhijeet Dipke, a political communications strategist and student at Boston University. He says the idea came as a joke.
Before moving to the US, he worked with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a political organisation that emerged from an anti-corruption movement in India more than a decade ago, and is known for its strong social media presence.
"I thought we should all come together, maybe just start a platform," he told BBC Marathi.
What followed was much bigger than he expected.
Within days, the CJP amassed tens of thousands of sign-ups through a Google form, inspired the hashtag #MainBhiCockroach ("I too am a cockroach") and endorsements from opposition leaders. On Wednesday, top opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav posted on X: BJP v CJP.
The discourse also spilled offline, with young volunteers turning up dressed as cockroaches at clean-up drives and protests, in a theatrical embrace of the label.
On Thursday, the CJP's Instagram account crossed 10 million followers, overtaking the official account of the BJP - widely described as the world's largest political party by membership - which has around 8.7 million Instagram followers.
However, the CJP's X account, with more than 200,000 followers, is currently not visible in India, with people trying to view it being told that it has been withheld "in response to a legal demand".
The pace and scale of the CJP's rise has taken many by surprise, but there is little evidence so far that this will spill over into political change on the ground in India. Although the CJP has outpaced political parties on social media, the BJP and the opposition Congress remain the country's dominant political forces, with millions of active members nationwide.
Still, the CJP's momentum continues to grow.
Screengrab from Cockroach Janta Party's website
The party has a website with a Google form for membership
For supporters, the CJP represents what one fan called "a breath of fresh air" in a political culture many see as overly managed and hostile to dissent. Supporters included...