Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the viral Cockroach Janta Party, said that the satirical party’s Instagram and Twitter accounts were hacked and suspended.
“Cockroach Janta Party’s official Instagram account has been hacked. We have lost the access to the account," he said in a post on X via his personal account.
He also said that his Instagram page was ‘hacked’ and that his:
"-personal Instagram was hacked.
- Twitter account withheld
- Back-up account also taken down.”
“Please note that we currently do not have access to any of our platforms. Any post made after this should not be considered an official statement from the Cockroach Janta Party,” he told his followers.
According to X, the original CJP account on Twitter (X), “CJP_2029”, was withheld in India in response to a legal demand.
After the account was blocked, a new one was made named “@cockroachisback." The account has already garnered about 198.6K followers.
While Dipke said that his Instagram account was also hacked, it was visible to users as of Saturday 10 am. By May 23, the account had garnered over 21.8 million viewers.
On Friday, Dipke said that he received a death threats on his WhatsApp number. He posted screenshots of the threats on his X account.
Dipke also launched his first online petition on Friday, where he demanded the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak. By Saturday morning, more than 568,000 people had signed the petition.
Meanwhile, some people have been filing trademark applications seeking rights to the title “Cockroach Janta Party.”
The applications sought trademarks under the category "political and social services" and were filed by men by the names of Azim Adambhai Jam, Akhand Swarup, and a proprietorship firm named "Cockroach Janata Party", Dainik Bhaskar reported.
The satirical Cockroach Janta party was created by Abhijeet Dipke, a student at Boston University, US, after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant likened unemployed youth in India to cockroaches and parasites.
Dipke is a digital media strategist who has previously worked for the AAP from 2020 to 2022 and is from Sabhaji Nagar, Maharashtra.
He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Relations at Boston University.