Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted a raid at the house of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Kumar Mittal in Punjab.The search operation was carried out at his residence located at 16, The Mall Road, Jalandhar Cantt, officials said.The action comes just days after the AAP appointed Mittal as its deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, replacing Raghav Chadha.The timing of ED raid has drawn attention given Mittal’s newly-assigned role in Parliament.The development follows a formal move by the AAP to restructure its leadership in the Upper House.The party had written to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat seeking the removal of Raghav Chadha as deputy leader and requested that he no longer be allotted speaking time from the party’s quota.Speaking on the change earlier, Mittal described leadership transitions as a “continuous process.”“Earlier, ND Gupta ji was deputy leader, then Raghav ji took over, and now I have been given the responsibility. Tomorrow, someone else may get the opportunity,” he had said.Ashok Kumar Mittal is the founder of Lovely Professional University in Punjab.An academic-turned-politician, he entered active politics in 2022 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha the same year. He has since served on several parliamentary committees, including Defence and Finance, and has participated in international parliamentary delegations.The AAP currently has 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, including seven from Punjab and three from Delhi.
