A political dispute has erupted within the Aam Aadmi Party after Punjab MP Raghav Chadha was removed as the party’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha and barred from speaking in the House under the party’s quota.
Responding through two video messages and posts on X, Chadha said a coordinated campaign was being run against him from within his own party.
“Since yesterday, a planned campaign has been run against me, using identical language, identical points, and identical accusations. This is not a coincidence but a coordinated effort,” he said.
The first allegation against Chadha was that he failed to join Opposition walkouts in Parliament. Chadha rejected the charge and challenged the party to provide evidence.
“This is completely false. I challenge anyone to show even one instance when the Opposition walked out, and I did not join them. Parliament has CCTV cameras everywhere,” he said.
The second allegation was that Chadha refused to sign a motion seeking the impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Chadha denied the claim, saying no one from AAP had asked him to sign the motion.
“No leader from AAP asked me, either formally or informally, to sign this motion,” he said. Chadha added that six or seven of the party’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs had also not signed it and questioned why he alone was being blamed.
The impeachment motion was linked to allegations by Opposition parties that Kumar favoured the ruling BJP during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The third allegation was that Chadha had become “scared” and was focusing on minor issues in Parliament instead of major national concerns.
Saurabh Bharadwaj criticised Chadha, saying MPs from a small party should use their limited parliamentary time to raise major issues.
In response, Chadha said he had entered Parliament to speak for the public, not to create disruptions.
He said he had raised issues including GST, income tax, water shortages in Punjab, air pollution in Delhi, government schools, healthcare, railway passengers, menstrual health, unemployment, and inflation.
“I entered Parliament to make an impact, not to create noise,” Chadha said.