Chandigarh, April 25 -- The revolt by seven Rajya Sabha members led by Raghav Chadha, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has dealt a crippling blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of next year's Punjab assembly elections. The defection by more than two-thirds of the AAP's 10 MPs in the upper house of Parliament - six of them from Punjab, includes Chadha, and Sandeep Pathak, both one-time close confidants of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. They were widely seen as the architects of the rookie party's spectacular showing in the 2022 assembly elections in Punjab. Kejriwal had praised the two young backroom strategists after the historic win, crediting them with crafting the election strategy and building the party organisation. They were rewarded with Rajya Sabha seats, days after Bhagwant Mann took the reins of the state, and both are now out of the AAP with nine months remaining for the elections. However, Mann ruled out any challenge to the party from them, stating that they were creations of the AAP rather than leaders in their own right. "The party is bigger than any individual. These 6-7 people who have left do not comprise Punjab," he said, branding them opportunists who were not even fit to be village sarpanches on their own merit. Chadha, who had a public falling-out with Kejriwal, led the revolt just days after he was removed from the post of the party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, followed by a "gag order." After his replacement, he openly targeted the party leadership, warning them of consequences with a punchline - Ghayal hoon, isliye ghatak hoon (I am fatal as I'm wounded), borrowed from the Hindi blockbuster movie Dhurandhar. Taken aback, AAP insiders feel the party leadership failed to assess the threat from the BJP and took Chadha too lightly. "Though they are not mass leaders, Chadha and Pathak know our party's strengths and weaknesses. They can be quite a handful for us in the upcoming elections," a party leader confided, requesting anonymity. A former MLA from Delhi, Chadha was the most influential party leader in the new government after the 2022 elections and remained involved in all key administrative decisions during the first two years. However, his influence gradually diminished, and he was virtually sidelined in the state after former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was appointed the party's Punjab affairs in-charge in March 2025. Friday's developments, which caught the leadership completely off guard, came just as the AAP was gearing up for its biggest electoral test in the only state where it is in power after losing Delhi to the BJP last year. The rebellion is likely not only to shift the political narrative -from the state government's welfare schemes, such as the Rs.10 lakh medical treatment scheme and monthly allowance for women, as well as the stricter anti-sacrilege law, to concerns over the AAP's internal stability - but also embolden the disgruntled elements within the ruling party. Dr Jagrup Singh Sekhon, political commentator and former head of the political science department at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, said the defections would shake the ruling party to its core. "This is a huge setback for them. Questions will now arise about the AAP's political stability and survival. When they came, they lacked a strong political structure, but they also did not build one during this period," he commented, signalling that the development would benefit the BJP. Political observers and party insiders also blame the AAP's choice of its Rajya Sabha members for the present situation, saying that outsiders were given preference over party volunteers. Sekhon said that several of them did not have the political stature or experience to be in the upper house and lacked a "sense of belonging" to the party. A ruling AAP leader admitted that the choice of candidates for the Rajya Sabha had caused disquiet in the party. Another complaint from some AAP leaders was that many of these MPs did not openly associate themselves with party activities. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, most of them remained conspicuous by their absence from the campaign, causing embarrassment to the party leadership. However, cabinet minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that these defectors pose no threat to the stability of the party or the government. "These developments will damage the BJP because the people of Punjab despise such undemocratic and unconstitutional tactics. During the previous government, the Congress encouraged defections from the AAP, and all those who defected lost the next elections. However, we will have to be more watchful of the BJP's dirty tricks," he said....