India’s Fastest Viral ‘Party’? Cockroach Janta Party Surpasses BJP On Instagram, Hits 10 Mn Followers In Just 4 Days

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical political movement, has rapidly gained over 10 million followers on Instagram, surpassing the follower count of India's ruling party, the BJP. Launched by youth as a viral reaction, the CJP focuses on issues like unemployment and government accountability.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a viral political satire movement launched a few days ago, has crossed 9 million followers on Instagram. This has more supporters than the majority of India's established political parties, such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled the country since 2014.

As of May 21, the Congress party's Instagram account, @incindia, had over 13.2 million followers, while the BJP's official account, @bjp4india, had about 8.7 million. Approximately 1.9 million people follow the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party account, @aamaadmiparty. The Cockroach Janata Party’s @cockroachjantaparty has crossed 10 million followers on Instagram on 21 May.

On May 16, the satirical political movement got its start as a youth-driven viral reaction to contentious comments purportedly made by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant during a court proceeding. The campaign is described as "A political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth" in its bio. On May 17, one day after the promotion began on X, the Instagram account was launched.

Within 78 hours, the account surpassed 3 million Instagram followers, and on May 20, it reached almost 9 million. While the BJP has published more over 18,000 posts on its Instagram account thus far, the CJP account only has 54 posts.

The satirical platform's main goals are to address problems like unemployment and document leaks, demand government responsibility, and channel young people's dissatisfaction. It may be the fastest-growing online phenomenon in Indian political debate in recent memory due to its enormous development in just four days.

"Don't underestimate the power of youth," the party's social media page stated as it shared its Instagram achievement of surpassing the BJP, at least in terms of Instagram followers.

The BJP is the biggest political party in the world by primary membership, with more than 140 million (14 crore) members worldwide. Founded in 1980, it is the most powerful political party in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition government at the center for the third consecutive term.