This page is the front door. If a friend has just sent you a link, if you've just landed here from a news search, if you saw a tee on Twitter and wondered what the joke was — start here. The whole story, in plain English, in under six minutes.
The two-line introduction
CJP — the Cockroach Janta Party — is a brand-new Indian political movement that began on 16 May 2026 as a one-person founding statement and grew to a national network of more than a lakh members in three days. Its name comes from a courtroom remark by the Chief Justice of India the previous day; its slogan, Main Bhi Cockroach, reclaims that remark as an identity. It is free to join, has no corporate donors, runs entirely online for now, and is built around a five-point manifesto of institutional demands rather than a programme of governance.
That is the whole party in two paragraphs. Everything else on this site — the manifesto, the leaders page, the join form, the shop, fifty-plus blog explainers — is texture on top of that frame.
The 30-second story
The chain of events that produced CJP fits on a single screen.
- 15 May 2026, 11:42 AM, Supreme Court of India. A fake-law-degree case is being heard. CJI Surya Kant, frustrated with the volume of frivolous petitions, makes an off-the-record comment comparing certain petitioners to "cockroaches". A court reporter tweets the line within the hour. It goes viral by evening.
- 16 May 2026, 06:14 AM. Abhijeet Dipke — 30, Boston University PR programme, ex-AAP volunteer 2020–2023 — registers cockroachjantaparty.buzz from his apartment in Boston. He spends the morning writing the five-point manifesto.
- 16 May 2026, 11:00 AM. The site goes live with the founding statement, the manifesto, and the Main Bhi Cockroach slogan.
- 17 May 2026, evening. TMC MP Mahua Moitra tweets "Main bhi cockroach". The handle trends on Indian X within 90 minutes.
- 18 May 2026. TMC MP Kirti Azad joins as the second honorary member.
- 19 May 2026, ~10 PM. The membership counter crosses 1,00,000 — 72 hours after founding.
That is, broadly, the entire pre-history. Everything from week two onwards is in the May 2026 timeline and the latest CJP news roundup.
The 5-point platform in plain English
The full manifesto, with sub-clauses and legal references, is on the /manifesto page. Here it is in five sentences:
- No Rajya Sabha for the outgoing Chief Justice. A constitutional bar on any retiring CJI accepting a Rajya Sabha nomination within seven years of retirement, to insulate the apex court from executive favours.
- UAPA prosecution of the Election Commissioner in any documented instance of mass voter-roll deletion without statutory notice. The most controversial of the five.
- 55% women's reservation in legislatures and government jobs, up from the 33% in the existing Women's Reservation Act, with a clear sunset clause linked to female workforce participation.
- An independent investigation into the 2024 and 2025 vote-deletion controversies, by a sitting-and-retired-judges panel with subpoena powers.
- Political literacy + panchayat-first contestation. A free national civics curriculum and a focus on panchayat candidates in 2027 before any Lok Sabha contest in 2029.
It is the fifth point that gives CJP its long horizon — the party is explicitly not contesting national elections in 2029 with the goal of forming a government. That is also why some observers initially read it as satire. The "Secular. Socialist. Democratic. Lazy." tagline is the same joke and the same point.
The people behind it
CJP is not yet a hundred-person party office. It is, structurally, one founder, two honorary MPs, and a national volunteer network organised by state. The published faces are:
- Abhijeet Dipke — founder. 30 years old. PR graduate student at Boston University. AAP volunteer between 2020 and 2023. Full biography: Abhijeet Dipke Biography. The decision to refuse a merger with AAP in week one is largely his.
- Mahua Moitra — honorary member, sitting MP (TMC, Krishnanagar). Profile: Mahua Moitra and CJP.
- Kirti Azad — honorary member, sitting MP (TMC, Bardhaman-Durgapur). Profile: Kirti Azad CJP timeline.
- State convenors — twelve named state convenors and forty-plus district volunteers, listed in the state chapter rollout.
For Hindi-language coverage of the people and the platform, see कॉकरोच जनता पार्टी क्या है?. For the founder's own framing, the biography reproduces his founding statement in full.
How to engage
Four ways to engage, in increasing order of commitment:
- Follow. The X / Twitter handle is @cockroachjantaparty. The RSS feed is at /feed.xml. Both are free, no signup.
- Join. The join form takes 60 seconds, is free, and issues a digital membership card on the spot.
- Wear it. The shop has the Main Bhi Cockroach tee, the hoodie and badges. The shop guide is the long-form explainer.
- Volunteer. Twelve roles are listed on the volunteer page, from regional translation to panchayat candidate scouting. Sign up first, then apply.
If you want the broader national picture — state-by-state members, regional rollout, panchayat-first map — start with CJP India. If you want the courtroom origin story in detail, "Do you identify as a cockroach?" is the deepest dive. And if you just want to do the one thing that helps most: join. Free, 60 seconds, no card fee.