Mumbai: The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) on Thursday launched a new account on the social media platform X after its original handle was withheld in India. It is not clear what specific complaint triggered the withholding.
The original X account was reportedly withheld a few hours after it overtook the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s follower count on the Instagram.
Party founder Abhijeet Dipke announced the new handle, ‘Cockroach Is Back’, shortly after the original account became inaccessible in the country. Confirming the action against the account, Dipke shared a screenshot on X showing that the handle had been withheld in India.
“As expected, Cockroach Janta Party’s account has been withheld in India,” Dipke wrote.
The satirical political movement has rapidly gained traction online. Its Instagram account crossed 14.5 million followers, surpassing the BJP’s official Instagram account, which has 8.8 million followers. The CJP’s original X account had also crossed 200,000 followers before it was withheld in India.
At 7.10 pm, in a matter of hours, the new ‘Cockroach Is Back’ handle had gained 49,100 followers. The profile caption read: “cockroaches don’t die”.
CJP has received support from the movement, including Trinamool Congress leaders Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and activist Anjali Bharadwaj.
BJP North East Delhi IT co-head Amar Rai shared screenshots claiming that 49% of the party’s Instagram followers were from Pakistan, 14% from the US, 14% from Bangladesh and only 9% from India.
The claim triggered a response from Dipke on X. “I know you are desperately trying to hack the account but since you have failed to do so, let me share the real data. Why would you call 94% of Indian youth as Pakistanis?” he wrote.
According to Dipke, the account’s followers were 94.7% from India and 1% from the US, with no mention of Pakistan or Bangladesh.
The Party describes itself on X as “A political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth.”
The ‘Party’ has also listed an “eligibility criteria” for people wanting to join the movement. According to its website, members must be “unemployed”, “lazy”, “chronically online” and able to “rant professionally”. One requirement states: “Minimum 11 hours a day, including bathroom breaks.”
The Party has also shared a satirical “manifesto” on its website. Among its proposals are barring retired Chief Justices from getting Rajya Sabha seats, reserving 50% of Parliament and Cabinet positions for women, banning defecting MLAs and MPs from contesting elections for 20 years.
On Instagram, the outfit identifies itself as “a union of lazy, unemployed cockroaches” and calls on Gen Z supporters to join the movement.
The Cockroach Janata Party was founded on May 16 by Dipke, a former political strategist for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The movement emerged after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant allegedly referred to unemployed youth as “cockroaches” while hearing a plea related to senior designation in the legal profession.
On May 15, the Chief Justice had said, “There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment or have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”
The following day, the Chief Justice issued a clarification stating that his remarks had been misquoted and were directed specifically at people entering the legal profession with “fake and bogus degrees”.
Dipke also claimed that he feared arrest upon arriving in Delhi. “I feel that as soon as I land at Delhi airport, a convoy of Delhi Police will take me to Tihar Jail,” Dipke said in an interview with The Red Mike.
Several other accounts using the “cockroach” name continue to remain active on X, including ‘The Cockroach Youth’, ‘Cockroach News’, ‘IAmCockroach’, ‘Cockroach Party of India’, and ‘Cockroach Janata Party (Gen Z)’.
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