New Delhi: Weeks after a public fallout with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which moved to suspend and then replace him in Rajya Sabha, Raghav Chadha has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In a press conference in Delhi with Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, Chadha announced that he, along with “2/3rd members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha” have decided to “merge ourselves with the BJP”.“There are 10 AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha, more than 2/3rd of them are with us in this. They have signed and this morning we submitted the signed letter and documents to the Rajya Sabha Chairman…3 of them are here before you. Besides us, there are Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney and Swati Maliwal,” he announced.VIDEO | Delhi: During a press conference, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) says, “The Aam Aadmi Party, which I nurtured with my blood and sweat and to which I gave 15 years of my youth, has now completely deviated from its principles, values, and core morals. The… pic.twitter.com/l8J9e9gspF— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 24, 2026“The Aam Aadmi Party, which I nurtured with my blood and sweat and to which I gave 15 years of my youth, has now completely deviated from its principles, values, and core morals. The party is no longer working for the country or in the national interest, but for personal gain. Many of you have been telling me this for the past few years, and I too have personally felt that I am the right man in the wrong party. I repeat, ‘I am the right man in the wrong party.’ Therefore, today I announce that I am distancing myself from the Aam Aadmi Party and going to the people,” he said at the press conference.Chadha, a chartered accountant-turned-politician, was a prominent AAP leader who started out as a volunteer in the Anna movement and soon became the party’s face on television channels. He became the youngest Rajya Sabha MP at age 33 in 2022. Elected from Punjab, he rose within the AAP as a spokesperson and key strategist.He was appointed as AAP’s Punjab co-in-charge ahead of the 2022 Legislative Assembly election, in which the party won by a landslide. Prior to that, he was an MLA from Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar.Following internal tensions over Chadha’s “unimportant” interventions in parliament, the AAP replaced Chadha as the deputy leader in the Upper House with Ashok Mittal. This had fuelled speculation of his role within the party.Interestingly, Mittal’s exit from AAP comes just a few weeks after he was appointed deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, replacing Chadha in his parliament role. It also comes days after properties linked to him were raided by the Enforcement Directorate.Mittal, one of AAP’s 10 MPs, was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2022. He is a part of the Defence and Finance parliamentary committees.Reacting to the exit, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said, “The BJP, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah has done the work of obstructing the good works done by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government. They are cheating the people of Punjab. Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs are joining the BJP, the people of Punjab should remember these seven names. The people of Punjab will never forget them.”“The AAP made Raghav Chadha an MLA, an MP. What did we not give him? The people of Punjab gave him so much love. He was made the Rajya Sabha MP. Now he is sitting on lap of the BJP,” Singh said at a press conference.VIDEO | Delhi: AAP MP Sanjay Singh (@SanjayAzadSln) says, “The Bharatiya Janata Party, under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, has launched ‘Operation Lotus’, which is being described as a game of cheap politics and an attempt to obstruct the good work of the Bhagwant Mann government… pic.twitter.com/VK0f2xuBiS— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 24, 2026In a post on X, Singh further said that he will submit a letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman, seeking to declare Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak as “disqualified” members of the house for joining the BJP.“I will submit a letter to the Hon’ble Rajya Sabha Chairman, in which a demand will be made to declare Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, and Sandeep Pathak disqualified from Rajya Sabha membership for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as this is tantamount to voluntarily relinquishing membership of their original party under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” he said.Once the party’s starry-eyed member, Chadha was not named as one of the party’s star campaigners for the assembly polls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.Chadha had also not publicly reacted after former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal along with former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and others were cleared of all charges by a Delhi court in the liquor excise policy case. He was also absent during Kejriwal’s arrest ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and had later pinned his delayed response on recovery from an eye surgery in London.