A simmering internal crisis within the Aam Aadmi Party exploded into public view on Thursday. The party officially removed Raghav Chadha as its deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. He was replaced by Punjab MP and Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Kumar Mittal. The AAP simultaneously directed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to stop allotting Chadha speaking time on behalf of the party.
The sudden leadership purge follows a year of mounting hostility between Chadha and Arvind Kejriwal’s inner circle. Party leadership has grown increasingly aggressive toward Chadha following his prolonged public silence during the turbulent Delhi excise policy arrests and his conspicuous absence from recent opposition motions.
Chadha fired back on Friday. He released a defiant video broadcast on X. The post was titled “Silenced, not defeated.” He forcefully questioned the party’s motives according to a detailed report published early Friday. “Is raising public issues a crime?” Chadha asked. “Do not consider my silence as my defeat. I am that river which becomes a flood when the time comes.”
@raghav_chadha
AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Friday said he has been "silenced, not defeated", a day after being removed as the party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.In a video posted on X, Chadha said, "Whenever I get a chance, I raise issues concerning the people in Parliament, pic.twitter.com/mqKbkMde2G
— वर्मा వర్మ Varma (@SMDVarma) April 3, 2026
He defended his parliamentary record directly. Chadha cited his frequent interventions on everyday citizen concerns. He pointed to his past legislative arguments regarding exorbitant airport food prices, the working conditions of Zomato and Blinkit gig workers, and the financial burden of rising telecom recharge rates.
Chadha was once widely considered a “blue-eyed boy” of the AAP establishment. He played a massive operational role in the party’s sweeping 2022 Punjab election victory. The sudden structural shakeup highlights a drastic fall from grace. The relationship fractured visibly in March 2024. Chadha remained in London for eye surgery and stayed completely silent during Kejriwal’s arrest. He maintained that silence recently when a Delhi court formally discharged Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. He skipped all celebratory party gatherings. He also allegedly refused to sign a unified opposition motion targeting the Chief Election Commissioner.
Senior AAP leaders launched a coordinated attack against him hours after his video went live. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann publicly dismissed Chadha as “compromised.” AAP IT cell chief Anurag Dhanda accused Chadha of being actively “scared” to speak against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dhanda claimed Chadha deliberately stayed back in the House during official party walkouts simply to “mark attendance for Modi Ji.” Senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj escalated the mockery. He quoted a famous dialogue from the Bollywood film Sholay on X. He wrote, “jo darr gaya, samjho marr gaya” — translating to “he who gets scared is dead.”
How the Collapse of the Kejriwal-Chadha Alliance Alters AAP’s Strategy
The brutal public excommunication of a core architect behind the 2022 Punjab victory signals a permanent ideological shift within the AAP hierarchy. The party is aggressively purging figures perceived as insufficiently loyal during the intense 2024 legal crises. By elevating Ashok Kumar Mittal, a wealthy education magnate, to the deputy leader role, the AAP is consolidating power around loyalist Punjab representatives while abandoning the younger, media-savvy urban strategists that originally defined the party’s national expansion. The coordinated use of “compromised” rhetoric by top leaders like Bhagwant Mann suggests the party is preparing its voter base for Chadha’s potential exit to a rival political faction.