Raghav Chadha is Kejriwal's wealthy confidant, and the fight is over extortion money: Former AAP leader

Speaking to ANI, Jaihind described Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha as Arvind Kejriwal's maaldaar raazdaar — his wealthy confidant — and insisted that the real story behind the party's very public unravelling has nothing to do with ideology or parliamentary procedure. It is, he said, entirely about money.

According to Jaihind, Chadha collected funds extorted from Delhi and Punjab that were originally intended to be routed to Singapore. Instead, he alleged, Chadha diverted the money to London — a decision that apparently had serious consequences for the MP.

"The money that was supposed to be sent to Singapore, he took it to England," Jaihind told ANI. "During this time, he was made to stand like a rooster and beaten in Delhi, and then he was beaten at the secret mansion in Chandigarh. This entire matter is about money and corruption, nothing else."

The allegations remain unverified and Chadha has not directly addressed the assault claims.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. Photo: Facebook/@raghavchadhaca

How it began

The immediate trigger for the public fallout was AAP's decision earlier this week to strip Chadha of his position as the party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, nominating Punjab MP Ashok Mittal in his place.

The party also reportedly wrote to the Rajya Sabha secretariat requesting that Chadha not be allotted any speaking time under the party's parliamentary quota — a significant and pointed act of sidelining for someone once considered among the party's most prominent young faces.

Chadha did not take it quietly. In a post on X, he accused the party leadership of orchestrating a deliberate campaign to silence and discredit him, calling it a "coordinated attack."

"Since yesterday, a scripted campaign has been going on against me. Same language, same words, same allegations. This is no coincidence, but a coordinated attack," he wrote, according to ANI. "At first, I thought I shouldn't respond. Then I thought that if a lie is repeated 100 times, some people might believe it. So I decided to respond."

He specifically denied claims that he had refused to walk out of Parliament or declined to sign an impeachment motion against the Chief Election Commissioner — charges that several AAP leaders had levelled against him in quick succession, with a uniformity that Chadha himself found telling.

Raghav Chadha, the husband of Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra, has steadily emerged as a prominent public-facing leader, gaining recognition for consistently raising everyday concerns in Parliament.

His interventions on issues such as high food prices at airports, 10-minute delivery model of quick-commerce firms, among others, drew widespread attention, where he advocated affordable options for passengers.

The party hits back

Senior AAP leaders were swift and unsparing in response to Chadha's pushback. Several described him as "compromised" and suggested he was operating under pressure from, or out of fear of, Prime Minister Narendra Modi — the party's standard formulation for a leader it believes has crossed a line.

However, Jaihind, for his part, framed the entire episode in transactional terms, dismissing any political dimension to the dispute.

The allegations — of extortion, of money trails running from Indian states to foreign capitals, of physical retribution in a secret Chandigarh residence — add a volatile new layer to what had until now appeared to be a straightforward case of internal AAP disciplinary action.

Police have not commented on the assault allegations. The claims, attributed to ANI, remain unverified.