New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal-led party faced one of the biggest internal shocks on Friday Raghav ChadhaAt one time, there was a massive exodus from Rajya Sabha to Bharatiya Janata Party due to its rising star and Kejriwal’s favorite boy.Raghav Chadha’s murmurs of dissent turned into a full-blown rebellion. Chadha didn’t just walk away, he also took with him a major chunk of AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha, pushing the party into one of its most serious crises since its birth in 2012.Raghav Chaddha’s rebellion has made AAP “injured”.The fissures, long hidden beneath the surface, came to the fore after Chadha was removed from the post of deputy leader in the Upper House, a post handed over to Ashok Mittal, who has since joined the rebellion.

The fastest-growing political startup, which formed three consecutive governments in Delhi, two of them with historic mandates, and later came to power in Punjab within just 15 years of its formation, is now facing internal dissent. Its own leaders are openly questioning “Kejriwal’s brand of politics” and accusing him of moving away from “honest politics” in the tone of rebellion.What’s next for AAP?

The exodus includes several high-profile names, including Swati Maliwal, who had already walked away from the party in 2024 after Vibhav Kumar accused him of physical assault at the official residence of then chief minister Kejriwal.The breakaway group also includes cricketer-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh as well as Sandeep Pathak, Rajinder Gupta and Vikramjit Singh Sahni, who add weight and visibility to the rebellion.

Standing before the media, Chadha reacted sharply, calling himself “the right man in the wrong party” before formally joining the party. BJP At its headquarters in New Delhi.

But the real shock is in the figures. In a surprise show of strength, six other AAP MPs have joined Chadha, taking the party’s total of 10 MPs to seven in the Rajya Sabha. For the Aam Aadmi Party, this is not just a rebellion; Due to this, his presence in the Upper House is almost going to end.Announcing the move, Chadha said that two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs have decided to merge with the BJP.“We have decided that we, two-thirds of the AAP members in the Rajya Sabha, will exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP,” he said at a press conference with Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal at the Constitution Club.Explaining his decision, Chadha accused the party of deviating from its founding ideals.He said, “AAP, whom I nurtured with my blood and sweat and gave 15 years of my youth, has deviated from its principles, values ​​and core morality. Now this party works not in the interest of the country but for its personal gains… For the last few years, I was feeling that I was the right man in the wrong party. Therefore, today, we announce that I am distancing myself from AAP and coming closer to the public.”

Meanwhile, Kejriwal immediately reacted saying that the move was orchestrated by the BJP and said, “BJP has betrayed Punjabis again.”

The irony is hard to ignore. A party born out of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement, which once promised to replace “traditional” politics with a model of “new politics”, is now being accused by its own leaders of abandoning those ideals.The outsider who challenged the system is now battling a rebellion from within that threatens to shake its foundations.

Not long ago, the Kejriwal brigade suffered a defeat at the hands of the BJP in Delhi, dealing a major blow to AAP’s national prestige and influence.Limited to governing only Punjab under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and with limited presence in Parliament, AAP was already on the backfoot. Friday’s rebellion has further reduced its strength in the Rajya Sabha, deepening the crisis.In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, AAP won only 3 seats in Punjab. Now with the revised Rajya Sabha numbers, AAP is left with a total of 6 MPs to raise their concerns in Parliament.

The twin shocks of 2025 and 2026, first the Delhi defeat and now this massive exodus, have pushed AAP to its weakest phase ever.Emerging from the anti-corruption wave, AAP positioned itself as a subversive, challenging the Congress establishment under the leadership of Manmohan Singh at the Center and under long-serving Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in Delhi.In its first election contest, AAP surprised the political class. Kejriwal ousted Sheila Dikshit from office, ending her 15-year rule and defeated her in the New Delhi constituency. This was followed by a tremendous increase – 67 seats out of 70 in 2015 and 62 seats in 2020.But by 2025 the tables have turned. The BJP made a comeback in Delhi after a drought of more than two decades, dangerously reducing AAP’s tally to 22 seats and appointing Rekha Gupta as chief minister.

Announcing his exit, Chadha inserted himself squarely into the BJP narrative, taking aim at his former boss Kejriwal, and accusing AAP of prioritizing “personal gains” over “national interest”. His departure and the scale of support behind him have heightened those allegations.Over the years, the top leadership of AAP including Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay SinghAnd Satyendra Jain had to face investigation by agencies like ED and CBI. The prison sentences and investigations, although some subsequent court cases were weakened, tarnished the party’s anti-corruption image.Interestingly, Chadha remained largely away from these controversies. Even during Kejriwal’s stay in jail and his subsequent reprieve, he maintained a remarkable distance – giving rise to speculations of growing internal rifts.After the exit of Raghav Chadha and other rebel MPs Aam Aadmi PartyParty leader in Rajya Sabha Sanjay Singh led the charge and launched a scathing attack on the BJP, alleging that a coordinated effort was being made to weaken and destabilize the party through central agencies like ED and CBI.

Reacting strongly to the development, Singh said, “Bharatiya Janata Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have started their ‘Operation Lotus’ to stop the good work of Bhagwant Mann government of Punjab. 7 of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs are joining BJP. People of Punjab should remember these 7 names. People will never forgive these ‘traitors’ of Punjab.”

Now the focus has shifted to Punjab.Chadha played a key role in AAP’s landslide victory in 2022, helping the party reach 92 seats out of 117, up from 20 seats in 2017. The victory ousted the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government and installed AAP’s second full-time government after Delhi.

Now, with the exit of Chadha and several MPs associated with Punjab, cracks may start appearing.Meanwhile, Chief Minister and Kejriwal loyalist Bhagwant Mann hit back strongly, calling the departing leaders “traitors” and dismissing their prospects in the BJP. He also accused the BJP of trying to expand its presence in Punjab through defection.Still, the political equations are changing. Since Congress is still the main opposition and BJP has now got the support of former AAP faces, the contest may intensify.There is a special kind of political irony in this.Just as AAP had emerged by uprooting Congress from Delhi in 2013 to Punjab in 2022, similarly now BJP has defeated AAP in Delhi.Now the question is, is Punjab next for BJP?