Abhijeet Dipke Visits Balaghat Amid Tribal Children's Deaths

Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), visited tribal villages in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh on September 12, 2026, to meet families of children who died from infectious diseases. More than 30 children have died in the Birsa block over the last two and a half months due to illnesses including measles, malaria, respiratory illness, malnutrition, anaemia, and dehydration. The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to state authorities following a public interest litigation alleging inadequate treatment and overcrowded facilities.

During his visit, Dipke accused the government of negligence and claimed that the actual death toll is higher than the official figure of 36. He further alleged that children were cremated without post-mortems and that police detained tribal students coordinating his trip. In response, Balaghat Collector Kumar Satyam stated that deaths cannot be attributed to a single disease and noted that over 450 children received treatment. He attributed the high impact on children to poor immunity and mentioned that the administration is working to move locals away from faith healing toward modern medicine.

Reports of the visit differ in focus based on political lean. Center-left coverage emphasizes the humanitarian crisis, government negligence, and the detention of students. In contrast, center-right coverage focuses on an incident where Dipke was heckled by a group of social media influencers who accused him of doing politics on corpses and questioned the timing of his visit.