Who is Neha Bora? The new face of India's 'cockroach' youth movement
Bora became a much visible political face during the protests against India’s citizenship law in 2019 and 2020
Published October 12, 2026
Neha Bora was known mostly inside India’s student political circles until recently but now, the 29-year-old doctoral candidate has become one of the most recognisable faces of the growing youth protest movement challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Bora is the national president of the left-wing All India Students’ Association (AISA) and has been at the centre of demonstrations over unemployment, examination paper leaks and more recently, alleged irregularities in India’s voter rolls.
The student leader hails from Uttarakhand and has completed her studies from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Before becoming politically active, Bora was involved in theatre. She has credited her theatre experience in shaping how she is able to effectively communicate with audiences.
Bora became a much visible political face during the protests against India’s citizenship law in 2019 and 2020.
Since then, Bora has been frequently seen at the forefront of student protests, frequently speaking in Hindi and English, and linking the immediate problems like employment or irregularities in exams, with questions of institutions and democracy.
In 2026, she became a globally known political activist amid growing youth protests.
She has demonstrated with fellow students in protests in connection with the examination papers' leak and later with those of the “Cockroach” youth movement, which has alleged that the Election Commission of India has wrongly deducted the names of millions of people from the voters' list.
The Election Commission has denied allegations of political bias.
Bora was arrested again this weekend while protesting in Delhi.
Previously, Delhi Police briefly arrested another woman from the protests after they mistook her for Bora while she, herself, was protesting elsewhere in central Delhi.
She is not the sole leader of youth movement in India. Cockroach Janata Party's head Abhijeet Dipke was also briefly detained by police. Similarly, popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee was also taken into custody on Saturday and was released shortly after.
