The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) recently announced on its social media handle that its next protest will take place in Pune this week. The protest is set to take place at the Savitribai Phule Pune University on June 11 at 4 pm.
The CJP continues to demand Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak that has impacted around 23 lakh students. Besides this, they are seeking accountability over alleged irregularities in CBSE Class 12 results as well as controversies around entrance and recruitment exams.
Pune was chosen as the destination because the CJP considers it to be “Maharashtra’s educational capital”. Sharing the post, Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke wrote on X, “Let’s meet in Pune! Jai Maharashtra!”
The CJP held its first-ever public demonstration at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Saturday (June 6). Critics pointed out that despite the CJP having over 20 million followers online, only 2,000 people were actually seen on the ground.
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Opposition parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena (UBT), as well as Left parties and student parties, backed the movement. The Congress party, on the other hand, distanced itself from the protest. A section of the party believes that the CJP has links to the AAP.
Srivasta, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi, described the CJP gathering as “flop” and “performative”. He wrote on X, “Kejriwal today again proved that he is better at mobilising journalists and YouTubers than people. There are twice as many media personnel at Jantar Mantar as there are ‘protesters’ at this flop protest.”
On Sunday, Dipke said that protests would take place in several states and cities of India if Pradhan does not put in his papers by June 13.
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“Earlier I said that if Dharmendra Pradhan does not resign till Saturday (June 13), the agitation will go on a wider scale. Going in that direction, if Pradhan won’t resign, I will personally go to different cities and states and undertake protests with a demand for his resignation,” Dipke said in a video shared on X.
When questioned about the protests in Nepal and Bangladesh, Abhijeet Dipke said the demonstration at Jantar Mantar was peaceful and can’t be likened to the uprisings in the neighbouring countries. He added that students from across the country would come to the national capital and protest peacefully.
“We will not stop till Pradhan resigns. He should take moral responsibility for ruining the future of over one crore students,” Dipke said.
