Raghav Chadha may have dropped the bombshell on Friday, but tensions in the Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha team had been simmering for over a year, as Sandeep Pathak — one of the key architects of the party’s Punjab election triumph — was sidelined after the Delhi Assembly polls defeat, said Vikramjit Singh Sahney, one of the 7 AAP MPs who announced merger with the BJP. What added to the disgruntlement of the MPs was Chadha’s abrupt removal as the deputy leader of the party in the Upper House of Parliament, he added.
“Sandeep Pathak and Raghav Chadha were behind AAP’s Punjab success. This disgruntlement began when Sandeep Pathak was completely sidelined. He told me several times that he was very frustrated. He was not given any work — and this had been going on for a year, after AAP lost the Delhi polls. Raghav Chadha also said he was sidelined… he later withdrew from party activities… the dissatisfaction of Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak led to this episode,” Sahney told NDTV in an interview.
“The rift widened after Raghav Chadha was removed as AAP’s Rajya Sabha deputy leader. Chadha and Pathak were dissatisfied. We thought we were brought by them in the Rajya Sabha, and they were the pillars of AAP… They started saying they were reduced to zero. Hence, we made the decision,” he added.
Sources told NDTV that Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had promised to give tickets to at least five of the leaders in the next term, provided they quit now if they were not happy in the party. He called them to his house on Friday evening to discuss the matter, but the MPs announced their exit hours before the scheduled meeting.
Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal Wanted To Pacify AAP MPs, They Quit Before Meeting Him: Sources
What Shahney Told Arvind Kejriwal
Sahney revealed that he met with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday and informed him about his plan to join the BJP. He said he told the former Delhi chief minister that the resignation of “one-two MPs” would not help the party’s cause because it would bring the two-thirds threshold — needed to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law — further down.
“I met with Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday. I told him about our plans. But I told him, even if one-two MPs resign (from the Rajya Sabha), then the two-thirds figure will be achieved with just 5 MPs. What will anyone gain from that? But he didn’t believe till then that Sandeep Pathak would resign. The next day, I came to know that Sandeep Pathak and others are also going to the BJP. Then I thought, for the betterment of Punjab, I should also move on,” he added.
Also read: AAP MP Hosted Arvind Kejriwal For A Year, Quit Party Hours After He Moved Out
Traitor Charge
The MP also reacted to the Aam Aadmi Party’s attack on the seven MPs that they were “traitors to Punjab”.
“The party can say anything, but we didn’t betray Punjab. We met Amit Shah a few days ago and talked about Punjab’s problems… So we are standing for Punjab and Punjabis. Punjab can only develop when we have the support of the Centre government. The state and central governments can’t keep fighting,” he added.
Raghav Chadha vs AAP
Chadha said yesterday, apart from him, AAP MPs Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak were joining his rebellion.
In its 16-year history, the Aam Aadmi Party has witnessed many high-profile exits — including Prashant Bhushan, Kumar Vishwas, and Shazia Ilmi — but none of the rebellions dealt a bigger blow than Raghav Chadha’s, as it ensured that the party’s strength in the Rajya Sabha goes down from 10 to 3.
Raghav Chadha’s exit wasn’t sudden. The signs of the rift were palpable in 2024, with Chadha leaving for London when the top AAP leaders were jailed in corruption cases. He cited a medical checkup as the reason for not showing up.
The final fissure emerged earlier this month when the AAP replaced him with Ashok Kumar Mittal as the Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha. After AAP’s move, Chadha posted on X that he was “silenced but not defeated.”
The AAP said Chadha had been compromised because he had been silent on matters that the party wanted to raise.
On Friday, he reasoned that he had distanced himself from the party because he didn’t want to partake in their “sins”.
“I am telling you the real reason as to why I distanced myself from party activities. I did not want to be a part of their sins. I was not eligible for their friendship because I was not a part of their crime. We had just two options – either quit politics and give up our public work in the last 15-16 years, or we do positive politics with our energy and experience,” Chadha said.
Arvind Kejriwal, reacting to the development, blamed the BJP for the episode, saying the party had betrayed Punjabis.