Chadha loses and gains security while successor Mittal faces ED raids

It has been an eventful Wednesday for AAP across Delhi and Punjab. As the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab stripped rebel leader Raghav Chadha of rank and security, the Centre has reportedly stepped in with Z-category cover.

Also today, there were raids at the Phagwara-based Lovely Professional University, whose chancellor is Ashok Kumar Mittal, Chadha's replacement as AAP's Deputy Leader in the Upper House.

The Mann government has withdrawn the security cover provided to Chadha, a Rajya Sabha MP. According to a report published in ABP Live, the Union government is now believed to be stepping in to fill the void, with discussions underway to provide Chadha Z-category security in Delhi and Punjab, and Y-plus cover in other states.

Centre might step in for Chadha

The security withdrawal is only the latest in a series of moves that have steadily diminished Chadha's standing within the AAP. He has been removed from the post of Deputy Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha and barred from speaking in the House.

Also Read: ED raid on Ashok Mittal: CM Bhagwant Mann says BJP preparing for Punjab polls

Chadha has not stayed silent. Reacting to the speaking ban, he released a series of video statements pushing back against what he described as an attempt to sideline him. "I can be silenced," he said, "but I cannot be defeated."

The emerging picture is one of a widening distance between Chadha and the party that once championed him and a corresponding, if quiet, alignment with the BJP government at the Centre.

New leader, new problems

On the same day the party reshuffled its Rajya Sabha leadership, the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids on Mittal's residence in Jalandhar and premises linked to his private educational institutions. About 10 locations across Jalandhar and Gurugram were searched under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), including Lovely Professional University and two linked institutions — Tetr College of Business and Masters Union College of Business, both based in Gurugram.

AAP's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal was swift to connect the dots. In a post on X, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had "started preparations for the elections in Punjab," warning that the people of the state would give the BJP a "befitting reply."

Mann was equally sharp, posting on X in Hindi: "BJP begins preparations for Punjab elections. ED raids at the home and university of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal... typical Modi style." He accompanied the condemnation with a defiant Urdu couplet: "Hum vo patte nahin, jo shakh se tut kar gir jayenge. Andhiyon ko keh do apni aukaat mein rahen (We are not leaves that will fall off the branch; tell the storms to remain within their limits).”

Punjab's AAP ministers and MLAs joined in. Cabinet minister Baljit Kaur said deploying central agencies has become the BJP's primary election strategy, and that raiding a newly appointed Rajya Sabha deputy leader amounted to using investigative bodies as instruments of political pressure.

Education minister Harjot Singh Bains called it "unconstitutional misuse," alleging that previous raids by the agency had produced no proof or case — only pressure. Cabinet minister Ravjot Singh went further, suggesting the raids were a sign of panic, saying the BJP had "conceded defeat one year before the elections."

BJP hits back

The BJP hit back. Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu launched a pointed attack on Mann, invoking Modi's Swachh Bharat initiative to frame the raids as a clean-up operation. "Bhagwant Mann, your party is of thieves and robbers," Bittu posted on X in Punjabi, adding that "filth will certainly be cleaned up" under the Centre's watch.

Also Read: Somnath Bharti on Raghav Chadha row: 'If your blood doesn't boil, it's not courage'

Meanwhile, Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar questioned why Mann's own government had not acted against what he described as daily revelations of wrongdoing by AAP MLAs, ministers and MPs. "If your government does not take action," Jakhar wrote, "then the Government of India will have to take action against corruption."

ED officials, for their part, maintained that the searches were part of an ongoing FEMA investigation unrelated to any political calendar.