New Delhi, April 2 – The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday announced that its MP from Punjab, Ashok Mittal, would be the party's new deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. This effectively paves the way for the removal of party MP Rahul Chadha as its current deputy leader in the Upper House, with his replacement coming from Punjab.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has written a letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to facilitate this transition and appoint party MP Ashok Mittal as the new deputy leader of the party in the Upper House, according to highly placed sources.
Currently, RS MP Sanjay Singh is the party's leader in the Rajya Sabha and also the chairperson of the AAP parliamentary party.
The party is also understood to have urged the Secretariat not to allocate time to the incumbent deputy leader. In the past few months, Raghav Chadha has been vocal in raising issues of public interest and those related to the suffering of the people.
Meanwhile, there has been a tense atmosphere between AAP and party MP Raghav Chadha, although neither side has been openly discussing the strained relationship and has largely remained tight-lipped. The political grapevine is also buzzing about the MP switching political allegiances in the run-up to the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab.
Currently, the party has ten members in the Upper House, with significant representation from Punjab – the only state where it holds power.
Out of the ten MPs, seven are from Punjab, namely – Raghav Chadha, Rajinder Gupta, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Sandeep Kumar Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Harbhajan Singh, and Sant Balbir Singh.
The MPs from Delhi are Swati Maliwal, Narain Dass Gupta, and Sanjay Singh.
Ashok Mittal replacing Raghav Chadha reflects the party's unease and discomfort with two of its MPs in the Upper House.
Earlier, Swati Maliwal had rebelled against the party supremo after a bitter fight with the leadership, allegedly pressured to give up her seat. She currently remains an AAP MP in the Rajya Sabha.
