The greatest challenge to India’s government in years began as an online joke.

On May 16, after Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant described unemployed youth as “cockroaches”, Abhijeet Dipke, an international student in the United States, mused on X, “What if all cockroaches come together?”

Thousands responded. Dipke had hit a nerve. Soon after, he launched a parody political party that would represent all “cockroaches”, calling it the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), a play on the name of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

But as Dipke returned to India on June 6 and the CJP’s rallies did not lead to a revolution that toppled the BJP-led government, many have dismissed the online movement’s chances of succeeding “in real life”.

But perhaps the better question is, has the CJP fundamentally changed Indian politics?

‘Voice of the lazy and unemployed’

On the new party’s website, Dipke described the CJP as the “Voice of the Lazy and Unemployed” and insisted membership required being both, as well as chronically online and “able to rant professionally”.

The CJP became an instant internet sensation, accruing 10 million Instagram followers in four days. The only account to grow faster belonged to Kim Taehyung, a member of the K-pop boy band BTS, in 2021.

Within a month, CJP’s following had reached 22.5 million, more than twice as many as the BJP.

The CJP’s success, like many good jokes, mixed humour and pain. It spoke to young Indians who face intense........

© The Conversation