Cockroach Janta Party faces first rebel as former volunteer launches breakaway platform CJP-D

New Delhi (TIP): : The Abhijeet Dipke-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) faced its first internal rebellion on Thursday, Sept 3, with former volunteer Manish Brahmbhatt launching a breakaway platform called the Cockroach Janata Party-Democratic (CJP-D). Brahmbhatt accused Dipke of sidelining protesters and volunteers and turning the youth-led movement into a hand-picked “Team Kejriwal”.
He alleged that the CJP leadership was dominated by people with previous associations with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and was primarily focused on opposing the BJP.
Launching the CJP-D at its first press conference in Delhi, Brahmbhatt said the CJP had initially been a “faceless” movement that attracted support because of anger over a Chief Justice’s reported reference to young people, unemployed persons and RTI activists as “cockroaches”.
Brahmbhatt alleged that the movement began to be politicized after it gained momentum, comparing Dipke’s alleged use of Sonam Wangchuk and volunteers to Arvind Kejriwal’s use of activist Anna Hazare during the anti-corruption movement. “The movement succeeded because of the volunteers, protesters and Sonam ji. But after its success, they started politicising it,” Brahmbhatt said.
He alleged that Dipke was now creating a “selected team” at the behest of Kejriwal and said the CJP-D had been formed to oppose this approach and build a broader organization.
Brahmbhatt also leveled allegations concerning the funding of the CJP, claiming that its hotel and flight expenses were sponsored by Kejriwal and alleging that transactions were routed through an “angadia” network. He said his group was collecting details of the alleged transactions. He further alleged that the CJP had reached an understanding under which it would not aggressively campaign in states not governed by the BJP, claiming that the arrangement was intended to facilitate political cooperation in future elections. He alleged that Kejriwal was using the CJP to pursue his political ambitions by “using students and protesters”. CJP-D member Sushil Tiwari, who was present at the launch, accused the CJP leadership of betraying protesters who had participated in demonstrations at Jantar Mantar.
Meanwhile, CJP founder Dipke rejected suggestions that the organization was aligned with any political party. Responding to allegations that the CJP was either the Congress or AAP’s “B-team”, Dipke said the organization represented students.