New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has removed Raghav Chadha as the party’s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha and appointed its Punjab MP Ashok Mittal as the replacement. The AAP has also informed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat that Raghav Chadha should not be allotted time to speak in parliament, party sources have told news agency PTI.
Sources close to Raghav Chadha say that the party wanted to silence him in parliament. “The party informed parliament to not allot him time to speak and to further ensure that he cannot assign time to himself to speak he was removed as deputy leader,” sources said.
Mittal, who replaces Chadha as AAP’s deputy leader in the Upper House of Parliament, is the chancellor of Lovely Professional University. AAP MP Sanjay Singh is the party’s leader in the House. AAP now has 10 members in the Rajya Sabha: seven from Punjab and three from Delhi. The party is the fourth-largest in the House after the BJP, Congress, and the Trinamool Congress.
Today’s development is significant and raises questions regarding the future of Chadha, once considered AAP’s top-rung leader and part of Kejriwal’s inner circle, in the party.
Thirty-seven-year-old Chadha has been part of AAP since its inception. An alumnus of Delhi’s Modern School, he is a chartered accountant. Chadha met Kejriwal towards the last leg of the India Against Corruption movement when Kejriwal and others were debating whether or not to start a party. Then 23, Chadha came on board as AAP was formed, and his first political task was to draft the Delhi Lokpal Bill.
Chadha became AAP’s face as its national spokesperson and regularly appeared on TV debates. He was appointed AAP’s national treasurer at 26. In the 2020 Delhi polls, Chadha was elected from the Rajinder Nagar seat and was appointed the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board. In 2022, he was named AAP’s Rajya Sabha pick.
While AAP has not officially spelled out the reason behind what is being seen as Chadha’s demotion, buzz about his place in the party has been doing the rounds for months now.
Chadha’s absence from key party activities and his silence on developments such as the clean chit to Kejriwal and AAP leader Manish Sisodia sparked speculation in the corridors of power. Chadha, however, has been raising key issues in the Rajya Sabha, including high food prices at airports, gig workers’ rights, and traffic congestion in major cities.
