Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, Apr 2: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the fourth largest party in the Rajya Sabha with 10 members, after the BJP, Congress and the Trinamool Congress, has removed Mr Raghav Chaddha, the once close confidant of the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, as the deputy leader in the Upper House, and replaced him with Punjab MP Ashok Mittal.
The AAP has also informed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat that Raghav Chadha should not be allotted time to speak in parliament, party sources said on Thursday.
Sources close to Raghav Chadha said 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. The AAP’s 10 members in the Rajya Sabha include seven from Punjab and three from Delhi.
The development has raised questions regarding the future of Chadha, once considered AAP’s top-rung leader and part of Kejriwal’s inner circle, in the party. The 37-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.
The move comes amid Mr Chadha’s prolonged silence on matters related to the AAP, and his absence from several public events led by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. Once considered a close confidant of Mr Kejriwal and among the youngest MPs in the country, Mr Chadha had played a key role in party affairs, particularly in Punjab and during the AAP’s tenure in Delhi.
Party leaders claimed Mr Chadha has been increasingly sidelined from political campaigns and organizational matters of the party in other States, although he has been vocal inside and outside Parliament. Talking to reporters, Mr Mittal said the party’s national convener has entrusted him with the role of AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, and he would discharge his duties sincerely and present both the party’s stance and national interests forcefully in the House.
Downplaying the change, he termed it a routine process, noting that earlier ND Gupta was the deputy leader of the party in the Upper House, and then Mr Chadha was given the responsibility. “Now, I have been given this role. Our party wants all MPs to learn, and probably in that context, I have been given this role so that I can learn the processes and administrative skills in politics,” he said, adding that the party remains strong.
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