4 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 29, 2026 05:33 AM IST
Even as their son has emerged as the face of a national youth movement, the parents of Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), are being swamped with marriage proposals for him. While his mother hopes to see him married by December or January, the family has left the final decision on the date and month to the 30-year-old activist.
“We were receiving marriage proposals for Abhijeet even before the CJP protest against NEET paper leak started, and they continue to come in,” his mother Anita Dipke told The Indian Express.
She recalled discussing the topic with Abhijeet over the phone while he was in Boston. “He didn’t say much about it; he just smiled. As parents, we have been pursuing him to get married, but when he returns home in a few days, we will bring up the subject again and let him take the final call,” she added.
Abhijeet was scheduled to return home shortly after the recent agitation concluded following the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, but postponed his travel after contracting typhoid. “We now learn it will take another four to five days for him to return,” his mother said.
Family forced into hiding following threats
The family said they were forced into hiding for nearly two weeks shortly after Abhijeet announced the launch of the Cockroach Janta Party.
“After he launched the party, Abhijeet began receiving threats in Boston. Callers threatened that since he was in Boston, they would target his parents in India,” Anita Dipke said.
“Abhijeet called us immediately and urged us to relocate. We moved to Konkan and stayed with relatives for a fortnight. When he returned from Boston in the first week of June, we went to receive him.” The family currently resides in the Waluj area of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar.
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Anita Dipke added that Abhijeet had kept his political plans quiet at home. “He never told us about his plan to launch the Cockroach party. We learned everything through news channels when we saw his interviews,” she said.
‘A quiet boy who became an orator’
Recalling his childhood, Anita expressed surprise at her son’s public speaking abilities on television. “At home, he hardly spoke. Apart from asking for meals or basic necessities, he rarely held long conversations or spoke about anything else. He never participated in elocution or debate contests in school,” she said.
“He was always a quiet boy. We rarely saw him lose his temper or raise his voice. Seeing him speak three languages with ease on national TV was surprising.” On his compassionate side, she recalled his efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic to support around 15 homeless Adivasi families.
“He offered them space in our parking area and arranged all their provisions using ration we provided. They stayed in our parking area for days,” she recalled. “His father worried that our son would exhaust our savings, but Abhijeet insisted that serving those families was a humanitarian duty. He has always had a caring nature, which helped him unite everyone in Delhi.”
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Academic journey and physical attacks
While Abhijeet was an above-average student who scored 96 per cent in Class 10 at St Alphonsa School and studied at SB College in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, his family regrets pushing him towards engineering.
After scoring 65 per cent in Class 12 science, his parents insisted he pursue engineering, given that his father is a civil engineer. He enrolled at the Sinhgad Institutes in Pune but struggled to adapt and left before appearing for his final examinations. “We realised forcing him into engineering was a wrong decision and allowed him to exit the field,” his mother said.
The family also expressed worries over physical attacks targeting Abhijeet during the recent protests. “When I learned he was slapped and had ink thrown on him, I cried and worried if he was badly hurt,” his mother recalled.
“When I spoke to him, he told us not to worry, saying he now belonged to the nation as public property.”
