NEW DELHI: A day after leading a massive Rajya Sabha exodus to BJP, Arvind Kejriwal’s blue eyed boy Raghav Chadha on Saturday took a jab at the AAP party, saying he and several colleagues did not “quit out of fear, but out of disappointment and disgust.”“And those who are saying this, especially the Aam Aadmi Party leaders, that we left the Aam Aadmi Party out of fear, we left the Aam Aadmi Party not out of fear but because of disappointment, disenchantment, and disgust…” Chadha, who had earlier been removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha said.“The image of the AAP was shredded because of the Sheesh Mahal, and it was main the reason for the party’s defeat in the Delhi assembly elections. In less than a year since the elections, Sheesh Mahal part 2 is here…” he added.Further targeting the party’s image, Chadha said the “Sheesh Mahal” controversy had hurt the AAP and contributed to its poor performance in the Delhi assembly elections.“If there was one major reason for the Aam Aadmi Party’s loss in the Delhi elections, the Sheesh Mahal was one of the main reasons for the party’s defeat. But today, not even a year has passed since the Delhi elections ended, and Sheesh Mahal Part Two has come,” he said.“I wonder how the few remaining good workers of the Aam Aadmi Party will respond when people in the streets and localities ask them questions about Sheesh Mahal. The Aam Aadmi Party should introspect and think about it,” he added.Explaining his decision to leave, Chadha said, “today every true patriot who nurtured the Aam Aadmi Party with their blood and sweat and joined it with great expectations has either left the Aam Aadmi Party or is leaving it.”Every honest, hardworking person feels that there is no longer room for work in the Aam Aadmi Party, he said further adding that “the Aam Aadmi Party is now walking on a wrong path that no one wants to be associated with. Consequently, one by one, many leaders have left the Aam Aadmi Party.”“The Constitution, drafted by Baba Saheb Ambedkar, empowers elected MPs to leave their party if they feel that it has fallen into corrupt and compromised hands or is going down the wrong path. In this case, not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven MPs are leaving the Aam Aadmi Party together, because they believe that the Aam Aadmi Party has fallen into corrupt and compromised hands,” he said.These remarks come after Chadha on Friday formalised the split of the party at a press conference in Delhi, claiming that nearly two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs would now function as a separate faction aligned with the BJP.Among those who announced their exit alongside him were Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal. The broader list of defectors also included Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahni.The dramatic fallout follows weeks of escalating tensions between Chadha and the party leadership. Earlier this month, he was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and accused by senior leaders of engaging in “soft PR” instead of aggressively taking on the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.His growing distance from the party had become evident over the past year as Chadha was abroad when Kejriwal was arrested in the excise policy case in March 2024 and remained away during his nearly six-month incarceration.Senior party leaders also alleged that Chadha had been reluctant to raise issues aligned with AAP’s political stand. They pointed to his refusal to sign a notice seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his failure to join opposition walkouts in Parliament.Chadha, however had rejected these allegations, calling them “white lies” and challenging the party to provide evidence.
