Raghav Chadha, a senior Rajya Sabha MP from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), reportedly said that he is leaving the party and joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), along with several other AAP MPs from the Upper House. This development is being seen as a significant setback for AAP and its leadership under Arvind Kejriwal.

Chadha claimed that nearly two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs are shifting to the BJP. Along with him, MPs including Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta, and Vikram Sahni were also named among those joining the BJP. AAP currently has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, most of whom represent Punjab.

Addressing the media along with senior MPs Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, Chadha said he had devoted 15 years to the party but felt it had moved away from the “honest politics” it once stood for. He said he no longer identified with the party’s direction and described his decision as a move away from the party toward the people. Chadha also alleged that AAP had drifted away from its original anti-corruption ideology, which was central to its rise in Delhi politics. He suggested that internal issues and disagreements within the leadership had weakened the party’s core values.

This comes shortly after Chadha was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and replaced by Ashok Mittal, amid reports of growing internal rifts and differences with senior leadership. Reacting strongly, AAP leader Sanjay Singh accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of running “Operation Lotus,” alleging it was a political attempt to destabilize opposition parties and disrupt the functioning of the Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab.