The 'Cockroach Janta Party': why a Gen Z movement is on Delhi's streets

The name sounds like a joke, and that is partly the point. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a youth-led protest movement, has spent weeks on Delhi's streets demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar - and its three main leaders have all been in police custody, some more than once. Here is who they are and what the fight is about.

What the CJP wants

The movement accuses the Election Commission of manipulating voter lists to favour Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP, centreing its campaign on the "special intensive revision" (SIR) of electoral rolls. The CJP says the revision process has produced irregularities that distort the voter base. Both the Election Commission and the BJP deny the allegation.

Its tactics are deliberately visible: marches with the national flag, demonstrations at Delhi's best-known protest venues, and a name chosen to be impossible to ignore. The BBC reports the group has drawn thousands onto the streets in recent months, with a heavy police and paramilitary presence deployed around its events.

A week of detentions

• Last Saturday: Police boarded founder Abhijeet Dipke's plane shortly after it landed in Delhi to stop him reaching a demonstration. He was released the next day.
• Wednesday: The movement's other two main leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were sent to jail for five days after returning to Jantar Mantar, the protest site near parliament that police had recently declared off-limits.
• Friday, October 16: Dipke was detained again near Connaught Place as he walked towards his car, hours after police visited the house where he was staying. Central Park, the planned protest site, was sealed. A few hundred supporters waved flags and shouted slogans as thousands of officers ringed the area. Among others detained was Neha Bora of the All India Students' Association.
• October 17-18: A Delhi court released Dipke after he signed a bond, according to The Hindu. The CJP alleges delays in the release of Das and Ranka, saying four sureties were rejected, the New Indian Express reported.

Both sides' positions

The CJP frames the detentions as proof of its point. "They may detain three people, but how will they stop 30 tomorrow? How will they stop 300 leaders?" spokesperson Mehr Pasricha told the BBC. Anish Gawande, the opposition politician who hosted Dipke, called the detention of "a lone man walking with the national flag in his hand... a bit of a joke".

Police have not publicly confirmed the grounds for Dipke's latest detention. The Election Commission maintains that its roll revision is routine and lawful, and the BJP rejects the manipulation charge outright.

Why it matters beyond the name

Gen Z-led street movements have reshaped politics in several countries in the past two years, and India's version has picked the driest possible subject - voter-list administration - and made it viral. Whether or not its allegations survive scrutiny, the CJP has forced the SIR process into mainstream headlines, and the state's response to it is becoming a story of its own.