Dismissing the suggestion that the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) reflected anger among the youth, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday (May 25, 2026) said the youth still back Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would also be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) face in the Punjab Assembly election slated for early next year.

Speaking during an interaction organised by the Women Journalist Welfare Trust in New Delhi, Mr. Saini said that the CJP did not reflect the views of the majority of youth in the country. “Cockroach ki aayu kya hai? (What is the longevity of a cockroach?” he said.

The CJP has emerged as a satirical and political online trend after the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant had, in oral remarks in the Supreme Court, compared unemployed youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites of society”. After widespread outrage, the CJI clarified his comments had been misquoted by the media, and that his remarks were aimed at those entering professions with fake degrees rather than as an overarching comment on the country’s youth.

“In my frequent interactions with young people, I have not seen any support for this CJP. What is the longevity of a cockroach? The Opposition, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have a history of concocting fake narratives, just like the Congress did during the 2024 [Lok Sabha] election, stating that the Constitution was in danger. It was the Congress that put the Constitution in danger by imposing Emergency, [and] by undertaking self-serving amendments to the Constitution,” Mr. Saini said.

Mr. Saini’s reference to the AAP is noteworthy in that he has been undertaking many trips to neighbouring Punjab for low-key campaign events across the State. When asked about his campaign interventions, Mr. Saini said that the people of Punjab showed great enthusiasm for the BJP, particularly because of the welfare programmes implemented by BJP governments, when compared with the ruling AAP government which had failed to do so.

Mr. Modi would be the party’s face in the Punjab Assembly election, Mr. Saini said, when asked about it. “The BJP has just won a historic victory in West Bengal. During the campaign, there was no local face projected, the people saw Prime Minister Modi and his governance record, and voted for the BJP. Similarly, in Punjab too, Prime Minister Modi will be the face,” he said.

Mr. Saini has been visiting Punjab very frequently since 2025, and more so this year, with observers saying that he was being deployed to stitch together a non-Jat Sikh coalition in the State. The Haryana CM belongs to the Saini community, which is considered influential in Punjab, and his mother is a non-Jat Sikh. Punjabi is Mr. Saini’s mother tongue, which is helping his outreach in the State in public meetings and elsewhere.

BJP national president Nitin Nabin had earlier declared that the BJP would be going it alone in the Punjab Assembly election, after the saffron party’s alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) broke in 2019-20 over the three farm laws.