4 min readNew DelhiJul 28, 2026 02:00 PM IST
Buoyed by its month-long successful protest in Delhi over the NEET-UG ‘paper leak’ that ended in the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as education minister, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) may expand its footprint across the country.
In the coming months, its core members plan to visit states where students have been grappling with long-standing problems in the education system.
Speaking to The Indian Express, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said the group planned visits to several states with large student populations where students have been facing long-standing issues. “If required, we can also hold protests in these states,” he said.
Asked whether the CJP intended to evolve into a political party, Ranka said there were no such plans at present.
At a press conference in Delhi on Monday, the CJP announced the creation of a Rs 1 crore corpus to establish a legal aid network for protesters. It also launched SAAKSHI, an online platform to collect evidence related to the violence during the July 20 Sansad Chalo march. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal has extended support to the youth movement.
Ranka said the party’s core leadership — founder Abhijeet Dipke and spokespersons Saurav Das and Ratna Singh — will meet in the coming days to decide their next course of action.
“Dipke is recovering from typhoid. We’ll take a few days’ rest before deciding our next steps. Meanwhile, our legal support for those detained or booked during the protests will continue until every protester across the country gets justice,” he said.
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Core team
Dipke, who hails from Maharashtra, is a 30-year-old political communications strategist. He previously worked with the Aam Aadmi Party. He pursued a Master’s degree in Public Relations at Boston University.
Ranka, a Rajasthan resident and a close friend of Dipke, is an engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur with a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics. He runs Parivartan, a platform focused on social welfare and systemic reform.
Das is the organisation’s chief spokesperson and an investigative journalist. Singh is a lawyer and former journalist. Both are based in Delhi.
The group has not launched a membership drive, but volunteers have joined of their own accord. It has now formed a core team of around 12 members, including Vaishnavi Gaur, a public policy student, and Aafreen Nawaz, who left her corporate job to work for students’ welfare.
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How CJP was formed
The CJP traces its origins to a remark reportedly made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant during a hearing in May this year, where he likened unemployed youth in law to ‘cockroaches’.
The comment prompted Dipke to launch the Cockroach Janta Party on Instagram on May 16, as a satirical take on the BJP.
Within a few days, the account had crossed 20 million followers on Instagram, reportedly surpassing every established Indian political party on the platform.
In June, following the NEET ‘paper leak’, Dipke announced a protest demanding the resignation of Pradhan and called on people to gather for a protest at Jantar Mantar.
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Activist Sonam Wangchuk joined them and began an indefinite hunger strike in support of the cause. The protesters later organised the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march on July 20, which led to clashes with the police.
Thirty-six days after the protest began, Pradhan tendered his resignation on July 25.