AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Saturday released a new video in response to allegations made by his party members, including his alleged refusal to sign the opposition’s impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner Ganesh Kumar in March.
Chadha’s latest defense comes two days after he was removed from the post of deputy leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, and in the face of sustained attacks from his own party members over his “soft” following against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
In the video titled “Ghayal hoon, isiliye ghatak hoon” (“Wounded, therefore more dangerous”), the Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab chose to defend against three allegations made by the party: his choice to skip opposition strikes; Failure to sign a motion against the Chief Election Commissioner; And fear of the BJP.
“They claimed that Raghav Chadha refused to sign the motion to remove the Chief Election Commissioner. Another blatant lie. No AAP leader asked me to sign the motion, formally or informally,” Chadha said in the video message.
He also claimed that while the Aam Aadmi Party has 10 MPs in the Senate, 6 or 7 of them have not signed the proposal. He did not mention the names of other AAP MPs who he claimed had not signed the motion.
“Where’s the fault and why does it all fall on me?” He added.
He also clarified that it only takes 50 signatures to bring the motion forward anyway, “which means that out of 105 opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha, the motion will be complete with only 50 signatures.”
The motion to remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was submitted on March 13, with signatures of 130 Lok Sabha MPs and 63 Rajya Sabha MPs.
This is the first time in the history of the Indian Parliament that a formal removal notice has been filed against the incumbent CEC. With the budget session currently adjourned, there has been no further movement on the notice.
Claims AAP on CEC proposal
AAP leader Atishi clearly said that Raghav Chadha was “afraid of the BJP and in asking questions to (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi GeeShe also questioned why he skipped issues like the “misuse” of the Election Commission and the “Korean vote” in Delhi.
She had said that Chad was reluctant to support the proposal to dismiss the Chief Electoral Commissioner. “Today, our nation is going through a massive crisis. There is a grave threat to our Constitution, the West Bengal elections have been stolen through blatant misuse of the Election Commission, and yet you raise no questions; why do you seem afraid to speak out against it?” Atishi asked in a video, posted on X.
“When the TMC and other opposition parties submit a motion to dismiss the Election Commission, you refuse to sign it,” she added.
Other AAP leaders also raised the same issue of choosing not to sign the proposal. AAP Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj pointed out that while the opposition had moved a motion to remove the CEC, Chadha neither signed it nor participated in some of the strikes.
