AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal had a one-line response to the bombshell Punjab MP Raghav Chadha dropped Friday afternoon. “The BJP has once again given betrayed Punjabis,” he said on X.
बीजेपी ने फिर से पंजाबियों के साथ किया धक्का
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 24, 2026
Shortly before that Chadha and two colleagues – Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak – announced they would lead four other Aam Aadmi Party’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs to merge with the BJP.
In a surprise press announcement Chadha said: “The AAP I gave 15 years of my life to… but now it has stepped away from honest politics. I am the right man in the wrong party. I am moving away and going close(r) to the people. The AAP of today is corrupt and compromised.”
“We have signed and sent it (the decision to merge with the BJP) to the Rajya Sabha.”
Sources told NDTV Chadha could be made a union minister after joining the BJP.
The news kicked up a firestorm of political lamentations and sniping.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh lead charge, tearing into Chadha for betraying a party that gave him every opportunity, including a seat in the Rajya Sabha. “He has ended up in the BJP’s lap,” he raged.
It also laid bare a civil war within the AAP, the party that won three straight Delhi elections on the back of Kejriwal’s anti-corruption crusade and ‘everyman’ image. But the winning stopped last year after his right-hand man, Manish Sisodia, and he were jailed in the liquor policy case.
The first signs of sniping between the factions broke cover April 2 after Kejriwal sacked Chadha as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and appointed Mittal as his replacement.
Sources close to Chadha had then told NDTV the party wanted to ‘silence him’.
All of this plays out ahead of the election in Punjab next year, when the AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will ask voters for a second term.
Chadha is regarded as having played a key role in helping the AAP win the last election.