In a major political development Raghav Chadha has resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs including Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta & Vikram Sahney.
Out of 10 AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha 7 have now moved together to the BJP and this reduces AAP’s strength in the Upper House to just three members and now with Raghav Chadha’s exit comes shortly after he was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha earlier this month.
After his switch several of Chadha’s past statements criticising the BJP have gone viral:
In December 2023 he accused the BJP of being afraid of Arvind Kejriwal and trying to weaken AAP politically and he called the suspension of MPs at that time a “black day for Indian democracy.”
In an earlier interview he had said he believed the BJP was “a party of illiterate goons” and alleged it gave protection to criminals.
He also accused the BJP of using ‘political vendetta’ and trying to silence opposition voices.
While announcing his exit Chadha said “I was in the wrong party” as he joined the BJP along with the other MPs. This is being seen as one of the biggest internal shifts in AAP’s Rajya Sabha presence significantly reducing its numbers in the Upper House and sparking fresh political debate due to the contrast between Chadha’s past statements and his current move.