NEW DELHI: Seeking to build on the momentum of its recent Jantar Mantar agitation, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) on Thursday announced its first national organisational structure. It launched a nationwide membership drive and unveiled a countrywide public outreach campaign, signalling its next phase as a nationwide public movement.
The announcements were made at the party’s National Working Committee meeting in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, where CJP laid out its organisational roadmap for the coming months while reiterating that it does not intend to enter electoral politics.
As part of its inaugural national leadership, CJP named Abhijeet Dipke, as its founder and national convener. Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were appointed as co-conveners.
The party also announced its core national team, appointing Ajinkya Shinde as national organisation in-charge, Deepak Baliyan as organisation co-in-charge, Aafreen Nawaz as national secretary, Vijay Reddy Mallangi as media lead, Ratna Singh as legal affairs lead, Vaishnavi Gaur as research and policy lead, Rohan Deshpande as technology lead and Yogesh Ingale as finance lead.
Alongside the national appointments, CJP named zonal leaders, assigning Deepak Baliyan to the North Zone, Vijay Reddy Mallangi to the South Zone, Ankit Bhardwaj to the East and North East Zones, and Yogesh Ingale to the West Zone. The organisation said it plans to establish state coordination committees, Lok Sabha units and city level coordination committees across the country over the next six months.
The CJP also announced that its flagship public outreach programme, the ‘Kya Bolti Public’ national listening tour, will begin on September 1. According to CJP, its leadership will travel across India to engage directly with young people and gather public feedback, which will be used to prepare a citizen driven Youth Reform Charter.
The proposed charter will focus on holistic education reform, education to employment integration, institutional accountability, and solidarity and alliances with political parties, student groups and civil society organisations. The organisation also said it would meet groups that supported its recent Jantar Mantar movement to thank them and discuss future collaboration.
Marking another organisational step, CJP formally opened registrations for its nationwide membership campaign, inviting students, young professionals, workers and citizens to join the movement. It said membership figures and state wise expansion updates would be released periodically.
At the same time, the organisation clarified that it is not accepting public donations and cautioned people against any fundraising appeals made in its name. It said any future financial contribution mechanism would be announced only through its official website and verified social media channels.
Responding to speculation over its political future, CJP said it has consciously chosen to remain an independent public pressure group instead of becoming an electoral political party. The organisation argued that the present political environment is marked by the alleged misuse of investigative agencies, horse trading of elected representatives and engineered party splits, making electoral politics less conducive to pursuing its stated objectives.
Reiterating its long-term approach, the CJP said it intends to function as a nationwide movement centred on quality education, employment opportunities and institutional accountability, describing itself as “a pressure group, not a party,” with the objective of building a sustained public movement rather than contesting elections.
