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How ‘Cockroach Janata Party’ Surpassed BJP on Instagram in Just 4 Days
A parody political party, the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), gathered millions of followers within 24 hours on Meta-owned social media platform Instagram to overtake theworld's largest political party — Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)
The CJP had less than a million followers on Tuesday which quickly grew to over three million followers on Wednesday morning and more than 10.8 million followers on Thursday. That's higher than the 8.7 million people following the BJP on the platform.
"I can't tell you how happy I am today. We are just hours away from overtaking the world's largest party on Instagram," CJP's founder Abhijeet Dipke said in a post on Wednesday evening.
"You are about to make history," he said, saluting India's youth for "bringing the BJP to their knees in just four days."
"Think of what else you can do," he said.
What is the cockroach movement?
It all began on May 15 when the Chief Justice of India criticized India's youth — likening some of them to "parasites" and "cockroaches" — while speaking about fake degrees at a case hearing.
"There are youngsters like cockroaches who do not get any employment…some of them become media, some become social media, some RTI activists, and they start attacking everyone," he had said.
Within a day, Dipke asked, "What if all cockroaches come together?"
Up came the parody website with a five-point manifesto, promising to clamp down on corruption, inter-party defection and increasing women representation in the Indian parliament. Eligibility criteria to join the parody party includes laziness, unemployment and a chronic presence online.
DW has reached out to BJP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi ,who is yet to respond to our queries. We will update you if and when she does.
'No longer a satire,' Cockroach Janata Party founder tells DW
DW Reporter Shalu Yadav spoke to the man who created the Cockroach Janata Party.
Abhijeet Dipke told DW that while the movement came out of one, it was "no longer a satire or a joke."
"It's getting pretty serious," he had said.
