India’s ‘cockroach’ movement founder released a day after detention
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Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke was released after he agreed to certain conditions.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party and allies are protesting voter-list revisions, saying they favour the BJP and calling for election chief Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
- Founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained on Oct 16 and later arrested, after the police warned him and said the move was to prevent a breach of the peace.
- The Election Commission denies bias and says wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol, while the police also detained activist Neha Bora, who later said she has been released.
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NEW DELHI – India’s “cockroach” youth movement leader was released by an Indian court on Oct 17, a day after he was detained for trying to lead another protest rally in New Delhi calling for the resignation of the country’s election chief.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), rose to prominence this year when a weeks-long sit-in contributed to India’s education minister resigning.
CJP’s legal affairs head Ratna Singh said Dipke was released after he agreed to certain conditions but gave no details of the terms.
Dipke’s youth-led CJP, opposition groups and student organisations have held near-daily protests in October demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over a revision of voter lists that they say favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
More than 130 million voters were deleted during the revision.
The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol.
The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.
Student activist Neha Bora, a prominent face of the protests who was also detained on Oct 16 as she tried to reach central Delhi with dozens of supporters, was released on Oct 17.
“Please, spare the people of India. Impeach Gyanesh Kumar and halt SIR (special intensive revision) so that the ordinary citizens of this country can breathe a sigh of relief, feel at ease and have their voting rights ensured,” Bora told ANI news agency after she was released.
Dipke was detained on Oct 16 as he stepped out of a house in central Delhi, with the police hauling him into a police car and driving away after a brief argument.
He had called the Oct 16 protest in support of two CJP leaders detained and sent to jail this week for five days for demonstrating at a protest site in violation of a ban.
Earlier on Oct 16, the police had met Dipke and warned him against going ahead with the protest.
The cockroach movement has emerged as one of the biggest political challenges faced by the BJP in Modi’s 12 years in power.
A weeks-long sit-in by supporters of the movement earlier in 2026 forced then Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over exam paper leaks. REUTERS