Ashok Mittal, Who Replaced Raghav Chadha In Rajya Sabha, Joins BJP With Him Weeks After ED Raids

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal has officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The move comes just 22 days after Mittal was elevated to the post of Deputy Leader of AAP in the Rajya Sabha, replacing the party’s long-time strategist Raghav Chadha. 

The man who was promoted and the man who was sidelined have now joined forces to exit the party together, taking five other Rajya Sabha MPs with them.

At a joint press conference, along with Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, Raghav Chadha said, “We have decided that we, the two-thirds members of the AAP in Rajya Sabha, will exercise the provisions of the Indian Constitution and merge with the BJP.”

Mittal Replaces Chadha

The friction within AAP became public on April 2, 2026, when the party leadership formally moved to strip Raghav Chadha of his role as Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha. 

While AAP officially termed the move “internal restructuring” to focus on Punjab-specific issues ahead of assembly polls, the shift was widely seen as a disciplinary action. 

Mittal was initially seen as a stabilising, development-focused figure who could bridge the gap between the party and the industrial sector.

Chadha, a founding member and a key face of the party’s Punjab victory, was replaced by Ashok Mittal, the billionaire founder of Lovely Professional University (LPU).

At the time, AAP sources suggested the reshuffle was a disciplinary measure against Chadha for "wasting Parliament time." However, the move backfired, creating a rift that the BJP exploited quickly.

ED Raids: The Breaking Point

On April 15, less than two weeks after his promotion, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched a series of coordinated raids on Ashok Mittal’s residence.

The searches, conducted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), targeted Mittal’s residence in Jalandhar, his offices, and the LPU campus in Phagwara.

AAP leaders, including Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal, condemned the raids as “political vendetta,” alleging that the BJP was using central agencies to intimidate their new Rajya Sabha leader. 

A Coordinated Exit

On Friday, April 24, Raghav Chadha and Ashok Mittal appeared together in a press conference to announce their defection.

Citing the loss of the party's original morals, Chadha revealed that two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members have invoked constitutional merger provisions to join the BJP. 

By gathering 7 out of AAP's 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, including Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, and Sandeep Pathak, the group has reached the two-thirds majority required to invoke constitutional merger provisions, allowing them to join the BJP without losing their seats.

The defection of Ashok Mittal, a man AAP chose to lead them in Parliament less than a month ago, represents a total collapse of the party's internal vetting and loyalty structures.