The dramatic exit of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs from the Rajya Sabha is more than a tremor in Delhi—it threatens to shake the party’s foundations in Punjab, where Assembly elections loom less than a year away.
What rattles AAP’s leadership most is the departure of Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak, architects of the party’s Punjab strategy and kingmakers in candidate selection during the 2022 polls. Nearly half of AAP’s sitting MLAs owe their tickets to the influence of these two leaders.
This mass defection has ripped open long‑simmering fault lines within the Punjab unit, exposing the fragility of a structure built at breakneck speed and tightly controlled by the central leadership. The challenge before AAP now is not just electoral—it is existential: can the party hold together a restless state unit at the very moment it needs cohesion the most?
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann tore into the rebel MPs, branding them “traitors of Punjab” who deserted the party merely to shield themselves. His attack came close on the heels of Enforcement Directorate raids at the premises of Ashok Mittal, AAP’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha—a move Mann had earlier linked to a looming “Operation Lotus” in Punjab.
On Friday, Mann dismissed the defectors as leaders “not worthy of even being a sarpanch,” stressing that they had climbed the ranks of AAP without grassroots struggle. He accused the BJP of orchestrating defections and challenged central agencies like the ED to target him directly. Declaring his incorruptibility, Mann thundered, “There is no currency in the world that can buy Bhagwant Mann.”
Few within the party were stunned when Raghav Chadha walked out of AAP alongside Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal—their departure had long been anticipated. What caught many off guard was the scale: four more MPs joining the exodus. It is this sheer magnitude of defection that has rattled the party’s core.
The greater fear now is that Chadha may not stop here. With the BJP eyeing Punjab, the possibility of engineering further defections—and even attempting to topple the AAP government—looms large over the political landscape.
Before the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, Sandeep Pathak, as the party’s in‑charge, masterminded strategy and mobilisation, while Raghav Chadha emerged as the face of influence—his reach extending from candidate selection to the corridors of governance. Such was his clout that speculation swirled about Arvind Kejriwal, eventually positioning him as Chief Minister.
Though that elevation never materialised, Chadha was widely perceived as the “super CM,” steering governance and policy decisions from behind the scenes. MLAs routinely turned to him for approvals—even on transfers—cementing his image as the power centre within Punjab’s AAP government.
Reacting to his exit, Raghav Chadha declared, “I refused to be complicit in their sins.” He reminded that he and his colleagues had not entered politics to build careers but had sacrificed careers to serve the nation. “If the party is no longer working for the nation, it is because the Aam Aadmi Party today is not the Aam Aadmi Party we once joined,” he said at the press conference.
Chadha went on to explain why he had distanced himself from party activities in recent years. “Many of you asked why I kept away. I never spoke then—I was trying to mend things. But the truth is, I did not want to be part of their sins. I was not worthy of their friendship, because I refused to share in their wrongdoings.”
Sandeep Pathak’s exit has landed as the biggest shock for AAP. As national general secretary (organisation) and the architect of the party’s national expansion, his defection is seen by insiders as a body blow. Analysts warn that Pathak’s move hands the BJP an insider with intimate knowledge of AAP’s strategy, key players and civil society networks.
In Delhi, AAP’s political identity has long rested on Arvind Kejriwal’s centralised leadership. The departure of figures like Pathak and Chadha—who shaped policy articulation and national outreach—weakens the party’s second line of leadership at a time when it is already struggling to stage a comeback in the capital.
(The author is the Editor of the website www.thenewsgateway.com. Views expressed are personal.)
