The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) found its X account blocked in India on Thursday, five days after its satirical and meme-driven political movement became an Internet sensation and helped it surpass the BJP’s follower count on Instagram.

Boston-based CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who has two lakh followers on X, said this was expected. Hours later, he launched another account with the user ID
@cockroachisback.

In a series of posts, he claimed that attempts were also made to hack the CJP’s Instagram account.

The CJP has 1.39 crore followers on Instagram compared with the BJP’s 88 lakh and the Congress’s 1.33 crore. On X, however, the BJP still rules the roost with 2.3 crore followers.

The collective alleged that its X account was blocked because it had outstripped the BJP’s follower count on Instagram, which it had showcased on social media.

The CJP’s X account “has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand”, its X page read following the suspension.

The Union ministry of electronics and IT has not responded to queries from The Telegraph on blocking the account.

“We condemn the takedown of Cockroach Janta Party (@CJP_2029 ) page on X/Twitter under India’s opaque digital censorship infrastructure. It is clear violation of free speech and expression. We will provide any and all support against any illegal state censorship,” digital watchdog Internet Freedom
Foundation said on X.

The cockroach — reviled but resilient — was thrust into the spotlight after Chief Justice Surya Kant’s controversial comments last week, appearing to compare unemployed youths drifting towards activism with cockroaches and parasites.

“There are already parasites in society who attack the system and you want to join them? There are youngsters like cockroaches. They don’t get any employment and don’t have any place in the profession,” the CJI was quoted as saying.

The CJI had later clarified that he was “misquoted” by the media, but by then the comment had triggered a massive online backlash, jokes and a political idea rooted in humour.

Dipke, a former AAP social media communication strategist now studying in Boston, created the CJP on May 16.

The satirical social media-based “party” acquired political heft with Trinamool MPs Kirti Azad and Mahua Moitra expressing interest in joining it on May 17.

Later, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj showed solidarity withthe CJP.

In interviews, Dipke admitted that he took the “insult” as a joke and launched the movement, calling it a “voice of the lazy and unemployed”. He has also dodged questions on whether this spoof lays the ground for the launch of a political party.

He told India Today TV that Gen Z wouldn’t like any other party to be involved in this.

The CJP quickly captured public imagination, with people dressed in cockroach costumes taking to the streets of the capital to take part in cleanliness drives.

Some politicians have begun to view the CJP as competition.

“That a social media created idea of CJP has taken the Gen Z imagination by storm is a sad reflection of them losing hope in most of the current opposition parties. Clearly there is anger against BJP but voters would rather bet on a new figment of imagination created party than established opposition parties is unfortunate,” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvediposted on X.

The Indian Youth Congress has created a website called iamcockroach.in to mobilise youth against corruption, exam scams, environment degradation and fake news. They’ve even announced 12 awards for different categories of activist “cockroaches”.

The CJP’s first demand is that no Chief Justice shall be granted a Rajya Sabha seat as a post-retirement reward. It has also called for the arrest of the chief election commissioner under the anti-terror law UAPA if legitimate voters are deleted from the rolls. The party has also promised a 50 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and the cabinet, without increasing the strength of the House.

The movement has spawned a rival satirical group called the National Parasitic Front.

At least three trademark applications have been filed seeking rights over the name Cockroach Janata Party.