The Cockroach Janta Party, India's fast-growing satirical collective with millions of followers online, seeking to bring together youngsters to raise their concerns about the government, now appears to be facing some "internal trouble" or identity crisis of sorts as a lawyer filed an application with the Election Commission to register the "party" in his name.
The CJP emerged only a few days ago amid a controversy surrounding remarks attributed to the Chief Justice of India during a court hearing. It rapidly gained traction online through memes and political commentary around issues such as unemployment, examination paper leaks and education.
Sudhir Jakhar, a lawyer from Haryana’s Panipat, who claims to be the national convener of the days-old outfit, wants to register the collective in his name, separately from its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, according to a Hindustan Times report.
The report stated that Jakhar submitted the application, seeking registration of the outfit under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act.
According to Jakhar, he decided to take this step after Dipke declined to come to India to register the party.
“Dipke declined to come to India and convert this movement into an actual ground-level political party. Seeing the anger among the youth and the scale of what has been built, we felt that if someone else registered the name first and misused it, the entire movement would be lost. We decided to move ahead ourselves to ensure that does not happen,” Jakhar was quoted as saying.
The HT report said the objectives of the party, which Jakhar differs from the original demands of the CJP.
The original CJP 'manifesto' has five demands: No post-retirement rewards for chief justices, election Commissioners must face action under UAPA if legitimate votes are deleted from the electoral rolls, half of all Parliamentary seats and Cabinet positions must be reserved for women, media licences of outlets owned by corporate conglomerates must be revoked to ensure independent journalism, and MLAs and MPs who switch parties after winning elections must be banned from contesting any election for 20 years.
However, the outfit that Jakhar seeks to register has objectives such as transparency, communal harmony, peaceful democratic reforms, environmental protection, animal welfare, social audit of governance, legal awareness, and whistleblower protection.
The development came even as Dipke moved the Delhi High Court against the blocking of the outfit's X account.
The collective that built its popularity, among other things, by mocking the ways of Indian politics and politicians who switch sides at a whim, may be headed to an ownership battle and ideological splits usually reserved for full-fledged political parties.