New Delhi: For some time, Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha’s estrangement with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been a subject for political discussions and certain assumptions, but no one in the know was willing to confirm, clarify, or even talk about it on record.
But now, it is in the open.
His removal as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha appears more than the claimed “administrative reshuffle”; it is a public signal of internal discord within AAP.
This was further apparent with the party requesting the House’s Chairman not to grant Chadha time from that allotted in presenting statements on important public matters.
While the party apparently finds Chadha veering away from issues being raised by it, with senior leader and former Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday accusing him of choosing “less significant” issues in Parliament over “real matters” and not questioning the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Rajya Sabha member chose to defend his parliamentary interventions as being people-related.
On Friday, AAP senior leader and former Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused Chadha of choosing “less significant” issues in Parliament over “real matters” and not questioning the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Contradictions and confrontations have earlier seen several prominent faces, part of the crusade against corruption, who came together in 2012 as the AAP – entrusting leadership to Arvind Kejriwal for his leading role in the protests, abandoning it later.
Several leaders, founding members, and aides have stepped down from the bandwagon and distanced themselves from the supremo largely due to internal bickering, disagreement, leadership style, and sometimes, political shifts.
Key figures include Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Ashutosh, Alka Lamba, Swati Maliwal, and Kumar Vishwas, among others. Yadav, Bhushan, and Kumar Vishwas were said to have fallen out with Kejriwal largely because they believed AAP had abandoned its founding ideals of transparency, internal democracy, and alternative politics, shifting instead toward centralisation of power and personality-driven politics under Kejriwal.
In early 2025, seven AAP MLAs resigned from the party’s primary membership just ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. According to a former aide, many of the APP supremo’s aides and grassroots workers expressed frustration over his leadership style, campaign strategy, and the party’s internal functioning.
Campaign strategies were dictated top-down, leaving little room for local leaders or volunteers to adapt messaging to ground realities, contended the former member of AAP.
Incidentally, this was seen as a key factor in the AAP’s poor performance in the 2025 election, when the party could win 22 of Delhi Assembly’s 70 seats – a slide in 40 constituencies compared to the earlier state poll. The BJP then formed the government, winning 48.
Many other long-time companions, alleged the former aide, felt sidelined as Kejriwal increasingly concentrated decision-making power around himself and a small inner circle.
In May 2023, responding to reports that his name was mentioned in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet related to the Delhi excise policy case, Chadha held a press conference and strongly defended himself. He called the media reports “factually wrong” and part of a “propaganda” to harm his reputation and credibility. Those close to Kejriwal had criticised the Rajya Sabha member’s focus on defending himself and not talking for the top leadership of the party – including Kejriwal – being also allegedly “maligned”.
In April-May 2024, when AAP took to the streets against Kejriwal’s arrest over the excise policy case, Chadha was absent, party activists complain. However, Chadha, who later married Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra, was in London for eye surgery. Later, criticisms escalated as Chadha reportedly did not speak about it for many months.
Again, in February this year, he was in the news for not speaking out when a Delhi court discharged Kejriwal and his colleague, Manish Sisodia, in the same alleged corruption case. While he chose now to defend himself in his recent “silenced, but not defeated” video statement, it is yet to be seen what the next move will be for the Rajya Sabha member from Punjab whose term will end only in September 2028.
–IANS
