Raghav Chadha ‘kept on pedestal’, Sandeep Pathak ‘ignored’: An AAP insider reveals what led to exit of MPs

Chadha, speaking at a press conference, said, 'Main unke gunaah me shaamil nahi hona chahta tha' (I didn't want to be a part of their sins) and elaborated that politics was not pursued for personal career but for the nation. He indicated the party's drift away from the 'old Aam Aadmi Party' as a root cause of the rift and outlined reasons for his distance from party activities. The interview also noted that Chadha had previously been removed from his post as deputy leader in Rajya Sabha and was asked not to use speaking time from AAP’s quota in the upper house, framing these actions as part of the broader split.

Malwinder Singh Kang, AAP chief spokesperson and Anandpur Sahib MP, said Chadha was given too much power and that the party should have kept him in check. He claimed Pathak said no one had contacted him in the last year and suggested dialogue with him might have prevented the exit. Kang also accused the BJP of breaking parties through 'Operation Lotus' and stressed the need for better coordination with MLAs to prevent such defections.

Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney, Harbhajan Singh (Punjab) and Swati Maliwal (Delhi) quit the Aam Aadmi Party and merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Of the seven, Chadha, Pathak, and Mittal — who had recently replaced Chadha as AAP’s Rajya Sabha deputy leader — have formally joined the BJP after meeting its president Nitin Nabin; the status of the other four MPs remained unknown at that time.