Three days ago, almost nobody outside a small circle of Indian political-comms operators had heard of Abhijeet Dipke. As of this morning, he is the founder of a movement that has signed up over a lakh members, drawn two sitting Members of Parliament to its membership rolls, and put the phrase "Main Bhi Cockroach" on the trending charts of three platforms. Here is what we know about the thirty-year-old behind the swarm.
The basics
- Name: Abhijeet Dipke
- Age: 30
- Currently: Public-relations student at Boston University, USA
- Previously: Volunteer with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) social media team, 2020–2023
- Founded: Cockroach Janta Party, 16 May 2026
That sparse résumé belies the timing. Dipke registered the domain, drew the logo, named the slogan and put up a sign-up form within twenty-four hours of CJI Surya Kant's "cockroaches" remark on 15 May. For the precise courtroom context that set him off, see our breakdown of the CJI's remark.
The AAP years, 2020–2023
If you want to understand how a domain registered at midnight became a movement by lunchtime, look at where Dipke learned his craft. Between 2020 and 2023, he volunteered with the Aam Aadmi Party's social media team during one of the most operationally aggressive periods of Indian digital politics. AAP, at its peak, ran a kind of always-on newsroom: rapid-response graphics, hashtag squads, hyper-local meme-pages, and a relentless pivot from outrage to ask. Dipke was not a senior strategist there — he was, by his own account, a foot-soldier. But the muscle memory shows.
We have written more about that lineage in our CJP-vs-AAP structural comparison, and about how the diaspora of AAP-era volunteers is now an underrated political force in the AAP volunteer diaspora.
Boston University and the PR education
Dipke is currently a student of public relations at Boston University in the United States. The school produces a steady stream of communications strategists, but rarely founders of Indian political movements. The combination of a PR education and lived AAP-era ground experience is, on paper, unusual. He has spoken in interviews about the practical influence of his coursework — the discipline of message-testing, the obsession with one-sentence value propositions, the bias for clean visual identities. We unpack that overlap in detail in Dipke's Boston University years.
The founding moment
By Dipke's own account, the founding was not planned. He has called it "impromptu". He watched the CJI clip on 15 May, slept on it, and woke up on 16 May with three things: a name, a slogan, and a logo. He did not, he says, expect the scale of what happened next.
"We will not align with any political party, especially not the BJP. If opposition leaders want to support us publicly, that is fine. But we are not interested in becoming attached to any existing party structure."
— Abhijeet Dipke, founder's note
The note above is the closest thing CJP has to a founding charter. It does three things in one paragraph: it draws a hard line against the BJP, it leaves the door open to opposition outreach, and it pre-empts the most predictable absorption play — being folded into someone else's coalition. Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad have since publicly accepted symbolic CJP membership cards. Both remain elected Members of Parliament for the Trinamool Congress; their CJP membership is honorary.
Style and method
What is distinctive about Dipke's operating mode in CJP's first 72 hours:
- One slogan, one logo, one page. No noise, no fork.
- A published manifesto on day three. The full 5-point agenda went live before the trending peak had cooled.
- No sponsors. CJP has publicly pledged community funding only — no party donors, no corporate backers.
- Free membership. The sign-up form has no card fee and no caste line.
- Merch as identity. The first Main Bhi Cockroach tee launched in under a day, with proceeds explicitly tagged for the movement.
This is not a coincidence list. It is a textbook AAP-era social-launch sequence — slogan, page, demands, paid membership in the form of cheap merch, and a charismatic singular voice. The difference is the satire. The cockroach is the joke that gets a young person to click. The manifesto is what shows up on the next screen.
What he isn't
Dipke is not, as some commentators have assumed, a former AAP MLA, MP, or office-bearer. He has not contested an election. He is not a lawyer (which is part of what makes the founding origin from a fake-law-degree hearing so on-the-nose). He has explicitly said CJP will not contest the 2029 general election under its own symbol. The plan, he has said, is to start with panchayat and municipal contests — see our piece on why CJP is skipping the general election for more.
Why he matters
India's youth politics has not produced a new mainstream face in a long time. Dipke is not yet that face. He is, however, the first person in years to mobilise one lakh youth members in three days without the backing of a national party, without an existing media platform, and without a single rally. That alone makes him worth watching.
If you want to see what he built, the simplest path is the manifesto, the leaders page, and the sign-up form. The card is free; the antennae are optional.