Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Several Aam Aadmi Party workers on Saturday protested outside the residence of Rajya Sabha MP Rajinder Gupta in Ludhiana.According to the video, party workers using spray paint cans wrote several slogans in Punjabi, including captions like ‘Gaddar’, on the walls of Gupta’s residence to express their resentment after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The party workers also burned his effigy to show their frustration. This comes after Raghav Chadha, Rajinder Gupta, along with two-thirds of AAP MPs, merged with the BJP on Friday.The development marks a major political setback for the Aam Aadmi Party, with Raghav Chadha leading the split after weeks of escalating tensions with the party leadership. Announcing his exit, Chadha said the party had ‘strayed from its founding principles’ and claimed he did not want to be ‘part of their sins,’ describing himself as the ‘right man in the wrong party.’Chadha also stated that more than two-thirds of AAP’s MPs supported the move and that seven MPs signed documents to formalise the merger with the BJP under constitutional provisions.The rift had been brewing for days, especially after Chadha was removed as the party’s deputy leader. Senior AAP leaders had accused him of deviating from the party line, engaging in ‘soft PR’ and avoiding direct attacks on the BJP in Parliament.Responding to the allegations, Chadha had dismissed them as ‘baseless’ and part of a ‘coordinated campaign’ to target him. He maintained that his focus in Parliament was to raise issues affecting the common man rather than create disruption.Listing his work, Chadha said he had consistently raised concerns such as expensive food at airports, taxation on the middle class, working conditions of delivery workers and telecom pricing—issues that had helped him build a strong connect with young voters.
