Raghav Chadha, who left the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in April, has been named to the Punjab BJP’s manifesto committee ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. Five other Rajya Sabha MPs who quit the AAP along with him have also been included in the party’s manifesto and charge sheet committees.
Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon constituted the two state-level committees, according to a statement issued by the party office. Dhillon said that more committees would be announced in the coming days.
The manifesto committee will be chaired by former Punjab BJP president and former MP Avinash Rai Khanna. Its other members include Manpreet Singh Badal, Ashwani Sharma, Manoranjan Kalia, Som Parkash, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Ashwani Sekhri, Satnam Singh Sandhu, Raghav Chadha, Rajinder Gupta, Harbhajan Singh, Param Pal Kaur and HS Phoolka.
The charge sheet committee includes several prominent political figures, including former Punjab BJP president Vijay Sampla, Shwet Malik, Puneet Kumar, Preneet Kaur, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sushil Kumar Rinku, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak and Jagmeet Singh Brar, among others.
Former AAP strategist Sandeep Pathak, businessman Ashok Mittal and Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney are among those included in the charge sheet committee. The panel has been constituted to prepare the BJP’s case against the AAP government in Punjab.
Chadha, who comes from a Delhi-based Punjabi family, had earlier faced allegations of wielding considerable influence over the Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab. He joined the BJP in April in the presence of BJP national president Nitin Nabin at the party headquarters in New Delhi. Pathak also joined the BJP on the same day.
The group of seven Rajya Sabha MPs who switched from the AAP to the BJP claimed that their merger met the requirements of the anti-defection law, allowing them to retain their parliamentary seats. However, the AAP has continued to challenge the move.
Following the departures, the AAP was left with only three of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs: senior party leader Sanjay Singh, businessman Rajinder Gupta and environmentalist and spiritual leader Balbir Singh Seechewal. Seechewal remains the party’s only remaining Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab.
The next Punjab Assembly elections are scheduled for early 2027. The BJP, which had earlier announced its intention to contest all 117 Assembly seats independently, has also reportedly held discussions with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on reviving their alliance. However, the BJP is understood to be seeking a larger share of seats while maintaining its position as the senior partner in any potential arrangement.