Raghav Chadha on Monday defended his decision to quit the Aam Aadmi Party, saying the party’s work environment had turned “toxic” and that leaders were being stopped from functioning.
In a video message, Chadha said he had been receiving messages over the past few days, with some people congratulating him and others asking about his decision.
Recalling his political journey, he said he had left a successful career as a chartered accountant to join the party led by Arvind Kejriwal.
“I didn't come into politics to make my career,” he said, adding that he had given 15 years of his “prime youth” to the party and worked with his “blood, sweat and tears.”
Alleging a change in the party’s functioning, Chadha said, “Today, this political party is trapped in the hands of some corrupt and compromised people. They don't work for the country but for their own personal gain.”
He said leaders were being restricted from working and speaking in Parliament. “If people are stopped from working, their hard work is suppressed, and they are silenced,” he said.
Chadha said he had been feeling for some time that he was “the right man in the wrong party” and had three options, to leave politics, to stay back and try to fix the system, or to move to another platform.
“That's why I, not alone, but along with six other MPs, decided to break the relationship with this political party,” he said.
The MPs who left the party include Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney.
On April 24, the seven MPs announced that they would join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Chadha cited constitutional provisions that allow two-thirds of a party’s MPs to merge with another party.
The merger was approved on Monday by Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, taking the BJP’s strength in the Upper House to 113. The AAP now has three members in the Rajya Sabha.
There was no immediate response from the AAP to the allegations. Chadha also said he would continue to raise issues of ordinary citizens and work “with more energy and enthusiasm” on his new political platform.
His social media following has also declined since the move, with his Instagram followers dropping from 14.6 million to 12.4 million.