When an indignant Dilliwalla, whose family was associated with the freedom struggle, told me he would never vote for an outfit that called itself Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), he was summing up the dilemma of an older India compelled to adjust to a rapidly changing younger India, with all that it brought in its wake.

Here was a thinking individual who followed politics, a successful entrepreneur who had just crossed 60, inclined against the BJP for the very reasons outlined in the CJP’s “manifesto” but unwilling to support it. In a week, the CJP became a sensation with over 20 million followers on Instagram, overtaking the following the BJP and the Congress had built over several years. This made even the international media sit up and take note. This could be just another social media flash in the political pan, but it’s worth reflecting on why it struck a chord.

Just earlier this month, actor C Joseph Vijay came to power in Tamil Nadu, sweeping aside an entrenched party like the DMK, with the Opposition AIADMK also failing to emerge as the alternative. All thanks to Gen Z and an even younger Gen Alpha, 12 to 16-year-olds who influenced the voting choice of adults in their home.

“My teenage granddaughter compelled my wife to vote for Vijay,“ said the editor of a daily in Tamil Nadu. “And in home after home in Tamil Nadu, children prevailed on their parents and grandparents to vote for Vijay and remember, many of them will be first-time voters five years down the line.”

Elections are increasingly being influenced, in small or big measure, by social media. That is why a rapper, Balendra Shah, is Nepal’s Prime Minister today. That is also one reason why Sheikh Hasina, whose father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman created Bangladesh, was ousted from power and is in exile in India.

What the CJP stands for

India is a large and diverse country and it is not easy to pull off a Nepal or a Bangladesh here. But it will be a mistake to dismiss the CJP as a foreign conspiracy. This is not to say that the government of the day should not be vigilant about the possibility of forces that may try to use or fuel such a phenomenon, particularly when the global reordering of power blocs is taking place.

The CJP highlights dissatisfaction with the establishment, and this is also reflected in its manifesto and anthem. That it should come soon after the BJP’s impressive victory in West Bengal, unseating a leader such as Mamata Banerjee, is a reminder that the ruling party has to go beyond making madrasa students in the state sing Vande Mataram.

More importantly, the online phenomenon highlights the failure of the Opposition parties to come across as alternatives for Gen Z. Those who flocked to an unknown, faceless Boston-based Abhijeet Dipke did not gravitate to the handles of the Congress, the AAP, the TMC, or the RJD.

These parties too flagged the NEET-UG paper leak and called for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. They also took exception to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s comments in which he used the word “cockroach”. The CJI later clarified, “What I had specifically criticised were those who have entered professions like the Bar (legal profession) with the aid of fake and bogus degrees. Similar persons have sneaked into the media, social media, and other noble professions as well, and hence, they are like parasites. It is totally baseless to suggest that I criticised the youth of our nation.”

There is a fatigue with existing political parties and their ways of functioning; there is boredom with the language they use, and a deep dissatisfaction with their inability, and lack of desire, to address the challenges that confront the youth today.

It is early days yet to know whether the Cockroach Janta Party will convert itself into a movement on the ground or register itself as a party and contest elections as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did.

Though Dipke says 94% of the CJP’s followers are Indians, Instagram does not provide any breakdown by nationality. It would be difficult to say how many of the self-proclaimed “cockroaches” are mere spectators or entertainment-seekers and how many seriously seek change. Had the word cockroach not been used to describe the new party, would it have provoked as big a reaction as it did?

Social media thrives on the sensational, the dramatic, and the irreverent. It has little time for nuanced opinions, which is also an integral part of political functioning. Having said that, the CJP has moved so far with finesse, using satire and humour — a deadly weapon — to lampoon without personalising the attack. It has also raised five demands, including calls for ensuring judicial independence and ensuring 50% reservation for women in Parliament.

Dipke, who says he first conceived of the idea of the satirical online platform on May 16, has faced casteist attacks and was trolled when he revealed, in response to a question on reservation, that he was a Dalit. That, he said, should say it all.

There have been signs of growing disaffection among the upper caste, the middle class, and the urban youth about narrowing economic opportunities amid the OBC-isation of the polity and the cross-party agreement on a caste census, which is expected to help the OBCs. This angst came to the fore again with the 2026 UGC norms on the promotion of equity, which were brought to prevent discrimination against OBCs and Dalits. For the moment, the Supreme Court has stayed these guidelines. The caste composition of the CJP’s followers is not known, but it will have a bearing on the future strategy of Dipke and his team.

Much will also depend on how the BJP, good at directing a discourse, handles the situation. Will it take further steps to put down this online upsurge as it did initially by getting CJP’s “X” handle suspended? Or will it, in the words of Shashi Tharoor, allow the pressure cooker to let off steam and take steps that defuse the situation?

Can a “party” formed online influence voter choices? It may be a new way of creating a political narrative without even forming a formal political organisation. Therein may lie the import of the Cockroach Janta Party. Established political parties will have to come to terms with these new realities. So will the rest of us.

(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide.)