AAP's Punjab Fortress Cracks as Chadha Leads Seven MPs to BJP
Raghav Chadha's defection to the BJP — taking six Rajya Sabha colleagues with him — is the most damaging internal rupture AAP has faced since its 2022 Punjab sweep.
Raghav Chadha, once the architect of AAP's historic 92-seat Punjab mandate in 2022 and Arvind Kejriwal's most prominent national face in the Rajya Sabha, has formally crossed the floor to the BJP, bringing six other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs with him. The move hands the BJP-led NDA a stronger position in the upper house and strips AAP of its most media-savvy parliamentary operator — all with Punjab's 2027 assembly elections already visible on the horizon.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann responded with a pointed social media post — the now-circulating "sabzi" ("vegetables") jibe — framing the defectors as wilted goods no longer fit for the party's table. The messaging was deliberate: Mann is trying to contain the political optics of a mass exit by mocking it rather than mourning it. Nayab Saini, the BJP's Haryana Chief Minister and a key attack voice against AAP in the region, called Mann's post an "insult" to the departing MPs — a counter-frame designed to position BJP as a dignified destination and AAP as a party that demeans its own.
What the Defection Actually Signals
The break was months in the making. AAP had already stripped Chadha of his Rajya Sabha deputy leadership role, replacing him with Ashok Mittal — one of the MPs now also crossing over. Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and AAP Punjab president Aman Arora had publicly accused Chadha of failing to raise Punjab issues in Parliament, including stalled flood relief and Rural Development Fund disbursements. Bhagwant Mann had gone further, calling Chadha "
compromised" — unusually blunt language between former allies.
The BJP gains more than seats. Chadha is a fundraiser, communicator, and Punjab-networked operator who knows exactly where AAP's vulnerabilities in the state lie. The NDA's Rajya Sabha bloc now sits at 141 seats post-merger, according to The Hindu — not a majority, but a materially stronger position heading into the monsoon session.
AAP's Punjab cadre responded with protests outside defectors' homes in Ludhiana and Jalandhar, spray-painting "Gaddar" (traitor) on walls — a sign of genuine grassroots anger, but also of a party that has lost control of the narrative for now. AAP is calling this "Operation Lotus" — BJP's alleged playbook of poaching opposition legislators — a framing that deflects blame but doesn't change the arithmetic.
What to Watch Next
The real test is Punjab 2027. Chadha's value to BJP isn't in Delhi corridors — it's in whether he can peel away AAP's consolidated Dalit and urban vote in cities like Ludhiana and Jalandhar. Mann understands this, which is why his response was ridicule rather than engagement: treating Chadha as irrelevant is the only move that doesn't amplify him.
Watch three things: ED activity against remaining AAP MPs (raids on Ashok Mittal's business premises on April 15 preceded his defection — the pattern is notable); whether Kejriwal moves to shore up the Rajya Sabha vacancy math before the monsoon session; and how Chadha is deployed by BJP ahead of any Punjab by-elections. His first press conference as a BJP figure — and what he says about Mann — will set the template for the next eighteen months of 
Punjab politics.
