Gen Z’s ‘cockroach’ party is challenging Modi over 130 million deleted voter names
Source: Fortune ·
With 40% of Indian graduates under 25 unemployed, the Cockroach Janta Party is pressing the Election Commission.
From the source
Five months after its founding, India’s Cockroach Janta Party, known as the CJP, has revealed what youth-led democratic movements can achieve – and how hard they are to sustain. The movement was formed in May 2026 to protest the government’s cancellation of medical school entrance exams and after India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant likened unemployed youth to cockroaches. By July, the largely Gen Z movement had scored an early victory with the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The CJP has since moved on to a much larger political issue: The Election Commission’s reported deletion of approximately 130 million names from the voter rolls. Since Oct. 2, protesters have descended on the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and other cities demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, halting the deletions pending an independent inquiry, and the restoration of the old electoral rolls before the next elections. In the process, the CJP has encountered strong…