AAP, TVK Playbook For Cockroach Janta Party? Haryana Lawyer Moves EC To Register CJP

Last Updated:May 26, 2026, 17:12 IST

Jakhar said that the organisers had approached Dipke to return to India and formally register the party, but he declined.

Cockroach Janta Party: Cockroach Janta Party, a satire platform, has rapidly become one of India’s biggest internet sensations. Amid rising momentum, a lawyer from Haryana’s Panipat has approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking formal registration of the viral satirical group, marking a separate move from CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke.

Sudhir Jakhar, the lawyer calling himself the party’s national convener, submitted the application under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act. The application includes the party’s cockroach logo and lists Jakhar in his professional capacity as a lawyer.

If approved, the group could become a Registered Unrecognised Political Party, a category once held by parties such as Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before it formed the government in Delhi, and Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) before coming to power in Tamil Nadu.

The Cockroach Janta Party emerged earlier this month after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant reportedly compared youth to “cockroaches". During a court hearing on May 15, the CJI had reportedly said that some unemployed youngsters become journalists, RTI activists or social media users and “start attacking everyone". However, he later clarified that his remarks were misquoted and were taken out of context.

Launched on May 16 by Dipke, a political communication student at Boston University, the group quickly gained popularity on social media. Its Instagram account reportedly crossed millions of followers and even surpassed the follower count of the Bharatiya Janata Party for a brief period.

The movement also received attention from opposition leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav and Mahua Moitra.

Jakhar said that the organisers had approached Dipke to return to India and formally register the party, but he declined.

“Dipke declined to come to India and convert this movement into an actual ground-level political party. Seeing the anger among the youth and the scale of what has been built, we felt that if someone else registered the name first and misused it, the entire movement would be lost. We decided to move ahead ourselves to ensure that does not happen," Jakhar said as reported by Moneycontrol.

According to the application submitted to the poll body, the proposed party aims to promote constitutional duties under Article 51A, democratic participation, social audit of governance, environmental protection, animal welfare, legal awareness, whistle-blower protection, transparency, communal harmony and peaceful democratic reforms.

These objectives differ from the original CJP agenda circulated online, which included demands such as denying Rajya Sabha seats to retired Chief Justices, prosecuting vote deletions under anti-terror laws, 50 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the Cabinet, cancellation of media licences of billionaire industrialists and a 20-year ban on political defectors.

Under existing rules, the Election Commission has the authority to determine authorised office-bearers of registered political parties under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. The poll body has previously exercised these powers during disputes involving splits in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party.

However, the party’s proposed cockroach symbol is unlikely to be accepted. The Election Commission’s approved list of free election symbols includes items such as a noodle bowl, pressure cooker and baby walker, but does not permit insect symbols, with rare exceptions only for the lion and elephant.

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