New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday named its lawmaker from Punjab, Ashok Mittal, as the party’s new deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. This effectively paves the way for the axing of party MP Rahul Chadha as its current Deputy Leader in the Upper House and his replacement with a new face from Punjab.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has penned a letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to facilitate this changeover and appoint party MP Ashok Mittal as the new Deputy Leader of the party in the Upper House, highly placed sources said.

Currently, RS MP Sanjay Singh is the party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha and also the chairperson of the AAP parliamentary party.

The party is also understood to have urged the Secretariat not to allot time to the incumbent deputy leader. In the past few months, Raghav Chadha has been vociferous in raising issues of public interest and those pertaining to their sufferings.

Meanwhile, an uneasy calm has prevailed in the ties between AAP and party MP Raghav Chadha, though neither side has been outspoken about the strained relations and has largely remained tight-lipped. The political grapevine is also abuzz about the MP switching political loyalties in the run-up to the impending Assembly elections in Punjab.

Currently, the party has ten members in the Upper House, with broad representation from Punjab — the only state where it is in power.

Out of 10 MPs, seven are from Punjab, namely — Raghav Chadha, Rajinder Gupta, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Sandeep Kumar Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Harbhajan Singh and Sant Balbir Singh.

The lawmakers from Delhi are Swati Maliwal, Narain Dass Gupta, and Sanjay Singh.

Raghav Chadha’s replacement by Ashok Mittal shows the party’s unease and discomfiture with two of its lawmakers in the Upper House.

Earlier, Swati Maliwal rebelled against the party supremo after an acrimonious fight with the leadership, after being allegedly pressured to give up her seat. For now, she remains an AAP MP in the Rajya Sabha.

–IANS

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