While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has refrained from announcing a Cabinet reshuffle right now, internal party dissension is starting to surface.
Raghav Chadha, the Punjabi Rajya Sabha MP, has already met with a number of ministers, MLAs, and party officials.
Since last night, Chadha—whom many saw as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s counterpart until his departure for the UK earlier this year—has allegedly met with a number of political figures, including the recently elected Members of Parliament.
Chadha spearheaded the party’s campaign in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha election. But CM Mann alone managed the Punjab Lok Sabha campaign. Only a few constituencies were he canvassing for the party’s candidates, and that was only after AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had begun his campaign in Punjab.
There is a buzz in the corridors of power about Chadha’s return to the forefront of Punjab politics, especially since the party won only three of the 13 Lok Sabha seats. The Jalandhar (West) bypoll, which is set for July 10, is seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Mann.
In the meantime, it has come to light that yesterday in Delhi, at least two ministers and a few MLAs saw Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of the party supremo who is being held in the Tihar Jail.
In the aftermath of the party’s humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha election, where it only secured three of the 22 seats it ran for throughout India, Sunita and Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak have taken up politics.