Raghav Chadha’s fallout with AAP explained: From Arvind Kejriwal's trusted aide to a ‘silent’ outsider

In May 2023, responding to reports that his name was mentioned in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet related to the Delhi excise policy case, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha held a press conference in New Delhi to strongly refute the claims.

The reports claimed Raghav Chadha was named as an accused in a charge sheet filed by the central investigating agency in a Delhi Excise policy-linked case.

Chadha called the media reports “factually wrong” and part of a “propaganda” to harm his reputation and credibility. Then, the Aam Aadmi Party was in power in Delhi, with Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister. Manish Sisodia, a senior AAP leader, was already in jail in the case, while other leaders, including chief minister Kejriwal, had been linked to the scam.

During private conversations within AAP after the press conference, many leaders had criticised Chadha’s way of ‘defending’ his own credibility when almost the whole of the top leadership of the party was being allegedly ‘maligned’ with accusations.

“Seemed like he thinks he is a bigger brand than Arvind Kejriwal. And his image is more important than that of other leaders,” a leader had said at that time.

About two years later, AAP leader and former Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, on Friday, 3 April, accused Chadha of choosing ‘less significant’ issues in Parliament as Rajya Sabha member over real matters and not questioning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the centre.

“We are all Arvind Kejriwal's soldiers, Raghav Bhai. The only thing we learnt is jo darr gaya so marr gaya (cowards are as good as dead). All of us were supposed to raise issues against the government. We recently saw that people who speak out against the government have been silenced. The government doesn't care about anyone's soft PR,” Bharadwaj said in a video.

What's my fault? Chadha slams AAP

Bharadwaj's video was a response to Chadha's earlier video, which slammed his party – AAP – for allegedly preventing him from speaking in Parliament. Chadha's video statement came a day after the AAP announced that it had written to the Rajya Sabha secretariat seeking the removal of Raghav Chadha as its deputy leader in the Upper House.

AAP leaders said that the party’s communication to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat “did not even mention Chadha” and simply sought the appointment of another leader, Ashok Mittal, as deputy leader.

The eye surgery in London

In April-May 2024, when AAP was protesting on the streets of Delhi over Arvind Kejriwal's arrest in connection with the excise policy case, Raghav Chadha, once a close confidante of the AAP chief, was conspicuously absent. In fact, Chadha, who later married Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra, was in London for eye surgery. Chadha did not speak for many months, which raised more questions about his political aspirations.

“Aisi kaunsi surgery hai jo do mahine chal rahi hai. Which eye surgery takes two months?” an AAP leader had said amid speculation that Chadha was on his way to joining the BJP.

Chadha underwent successful emergency vitreoretinal surgery in London in May 2024 to address a serious retinal condition and prevent potential blindness. In a later TV interview, he sought to address the rumours, calling the allegations false.

“After I recovered, I campaigned for the party in Punjab,” he had said in the interview, as written in ‘The Aam Aadmi Party – The Untold Story of A Political Uprising and Its Undoing’ book by Sayantan Ghosh.

“According to some AAP insiders, Chadha's retreat from active politics coincided with his marriage to Parineeti Chopra,” Ghosh writes in the book.

And recently, in February, Chadha was again in the news for not speaking out when a Delhi court discharged Kejriwal and Sisodia in an excise police-related corruption case, refusing to take cognisance of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet.

Rift building over time

The widening rift between Raghav Chadha and the AAP leadership, once seen as one of Arvind Kejriwal’s most trusted aides, has been building over time. From his absence during key political moments and prolonged silence on sensitive issues to internal criticism over his parliamentary approach, Chadha’s relationship with the party has steadily frayed.

Last month. Chadha, once a prominent AAP face in elections, was not included in the AAP's list of star campaigners for the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.

'Never questioned the government'

A small party like AAP has limited time in Parliament, Bharadwaj said, addressing Raghav ‘bhai’ on Friday. “It is better to take up more serious issues than samosas in Parliament. We saw issues about voter list fraud. The opposition wanted to impeach CEC, but you refused to sign the motion. Whenever the opposition walks out of Parliament, you do not follow. You have not questioned the government recently. How do you continue the politics of fear?” Bharadwaj said.

Chadha has remained an active parliamentary voice, frequently raising social and economic issues in the last few months. "I spoke on aam aadmi, airport food, Zomato, Blinkit workers, middle-class tax burden and strike on content creators....and raised issues. These issues helped common people. How does it affect AAP? Why would someone want to silence me?" Chadha said in the video, slamming AAP on Friday.

Chadha's rise in AAP

Apart from being a Rajya Sabha member since 2022, Chadha is also a member of the National Executive and National Spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Chadha had joined team Kejriwal during the India Against Corruption movement before AAP came into being in 2012. A chartered accountant by training, hw would help draft the then Kejriwal government’s Delhi Budgets

Chadha unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from South Delhi. A year later, he was elected to the Delhi Assembly. Before completing his term as an MLA, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in March 2022 from Punjab, where the AAP was in power.

It was the time when the AAP leadership started facing graft charges. Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain was arrested in May 2022, Manish Sisodia in February 2023, Sanjay Singh in October 2023, and Kejriwal in March 2024.

Some reports suggested that Chadha had been “interfering” with the affairs of the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government and wanted to “enhance his profile in Rajya Sabha”. “Several AAP leaders in Punjab have expressed discomfort with what they perceive as Delhi's outreach through Chadha, Ghosh writes in the book.

“He is viewed as a Delhi outsider who swooped in during elections and started making pronouncements about Punjab politics without proper consultation,” the book quotes a senior AAP leader.

What next for Raghav Chadha?

As AAP vs Raghav Chadha continues, all eyes will be on the Rajya Sabha MPs' next move.

Will he leave the party, or will the party suspend him? For now, he is a Rajya Sabha member representing AAP and will remain so at least until 2028, when his term in the Upper House ends. Or will he choose a different party, as is being speculated?

“I have a message for those who snatched my right of speaking,” Chadha said, in the video ending with a couplet ''Meri khamoshi ko meri haar mat samajh lena, mein woh dariya hun jo waqt aane par sailan banta hai (Do not mistake my silence for defeat; I am a river that turns into a flood when the time comes).'

(With agency inputs)