NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party has dropped Raghav Chadha as its Rajya Sabha deputy leader and named Ashok Mittal in his place. The party on Thursday sent a letter to the Rajya Sabha secretariat conveying the decision. By evening, the RS website reflected the change.Both Chadha and Mittal are from Punjab; AAP has 10 members in the Rajya Sabha, including estranged MP Swati Maliwal. The party’s sudden decision to remove Chadha gave credence to the perception of a growing disconnect between him and the party’s top brass, led by Arvind Kejriwal.

Once a trusted aide of Kejriwal, Chadha has, for some time, looked sidelined. His absence from events of the party supremo and his silence on various issues being raised by seniors in the party, despite being its national spokesperson in the recent past, also set rumour mills abuzz.

Chadha’s silence after Kejriwal’s arrest was first sign of rift

The first signs that all was not well between the party leadership and Chadha came when Kejriwal, the then Delhi CM, was arrested in connection with the excise policy case in March 2024, and the RS MP — seen as Kejriwal’s close confidant — was absent. Though the party tried to quell the speculation by citing that Chadha was abroad for medical reasons, his prolonged absence and silence did not go down well with the AAP supremo.More recently, Chadha, who is otherwise a vociferous MP in the Parliament on issues related to public welfare, did not make any statement after Kejriwal and former deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia were acquitted by a Delhi court in the liquor case last month. He was also not present at Kejriwal’s press conference thereafter, and the rally at Jantar Mantar.Later in the day, Chadha shared a cryptic post on X where he put out a video compiling his speeches where he raised issues affecting the “ordinary Indians”, ranging from tax burden to rights of gig workers. He added an evil eye emoji to the post.