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New Delhi — A Ramlila committee in Delhi's Pitampura locality will burn a 30-foot-tall effigy shaped like a cockroach alongside the traditional effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad during this year's Dussehra celebrations on October 20, 2026. The organisers have said the effigy represents "filth and dirt" as part of a cleanliness-awareness message, and have denied any political motive behind the addition, even as the move draws attention amid ongoing, unrelated protests by the Cockroach Janta Party.
The Shree Keshav Ram Leela Committee, which organises Ramlila celebrations in Pitampura, confirmed that the 30-foot cockroach effigy will be set ablaze on its grounds alongside the customary effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad on Dussehra, observed this year on October 20.
Committee president Ashok Goel, who is also a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, told the Press Trust of India that the insect effigy is part of the committee's "Swachh Bharat" and "Swachh Delhi" cleanliness-campaign messaging, and that the cockroach would additionally feature among the 'asuras,' or demons, in Ravana's army during the Ramlila performance itself. Goel stated that the decision was not politically motivated. A separate committee representative, identified in reports as Devaraha, said the cockroach effigy was intended to represent filth and unhygienic conditions as part of the festival's broader message of the victory of good over evil.
A Note on Location: Pitampura, Not the Historic Ramlila Maidan
It is worth clarifying a point of potential confusion, the cockroach effigy will be burnt at the Shree Keshav Ram Leela Committee's own grounds in Pitampura, in northwest Delhi, rather than at the historic Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi, the large public ground near Delhi Gate that has long hosted major political rallies and, separately, several prominent annual Ramlila celebrations.
While both venues host Dussehra events, and the Pitampura celebration is organised by a committee whose name includes "Ram Leela," it is distinct from the central Ramlila Maidan ground. Multiple reports on the Pitampura cockroach effigy do not describe the event as taking place at Ramlila Maidan itself.
The announcement comes amid an unrelated but overlapping news cycle involving the actual Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi. On October 11, 2026, Delhi Police issued a standing order denotifying Jantar Mantar as the capital's designated protest site, naming Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in East Delhi as the new designated venues for protests and demonstrations. This followed weeks of demonstrations organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), led by Abhijeet Dipke, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Several CJP leaders, including Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, were subsequently detained and sent to judicial custody on October 14, 2026, after entering the denotified Jantar Mantar site.
Reports on the Pitampura cockroach effigy have noted this overlapping timeline, with some coverage explicitly contextualising the Dussehra announcement as occurring "amid CJP's nationwide protest." However, no verified evidence has been found connecting the Shree Keshav Ram Leela Committee's decision to include a cockroach effigy in its Dussehra display with the Cockroach Janta Party or its protest movement.
The committee's stated rationale, communicated through its president, centres entirely on hygiene and cleanliness messaging tied to government sanitation campaigns, a theme Ramlila committees across India have periodically incorporated into their effigy displays in past years through other symbolic additions. The timing coincides with, but is not established by any source reviewed for this report to be caused by or connected to, the CJP's activities or the Ramlila Maidan's new designation as a protest venue.
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