From Parliament to Ground Zero: Chadha faces heat for ignoring Punjab, no MPLAD funds in two floods
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/April 3,2026
Ignoring Punjab’s issues after 2024 appears to have proved costly for AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday relieved him of his role as Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha and requested authorities to curtail his speaking time.
Chadha, who had actively raised Punjab-related concerns between 2022 and February 2024, has since shifted focus.
From July 2024 onwards, he has largely avoided key Punjab-specific issues in Parliament, instead raising matters such as senior citizen welfare, vacancies in railways, rural wage stagnation, the financial health of MTNL, the Delhi T-1 roof collapse, PMAY-U implementation, declining forex reserves, the Global Hunger Index, falling exports, and the Chandigarh Metro project. He also spoke on issues like student failure rates, shell companies, pending court cases, deforestation by DDA, BSNL 5G services, satellite communication, sports federations, promotion of pickleball, etc (as per GoI Data).
Critics point out that while Chadha raised concerns over high prices of tea and water at airports, he failed to address the lack of international flights from Punjab’s airports and did not pursue the issue of non-operational airports in the state. Similarly, although he spoke strongly on delivery workers’ rights and unethical practices, he did not sufficiently highlight delays or withholding of central funds affecting Punjab’s finances.
As a representative of a border state, Chadha has also been criticised for not forcefully raising concerns over alleged attempts to disturb peace in Punjab.
Elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2022, Chadha’s term runs until 2028. Despite two major floods in recent years- 2023 and 2025 that caused widespread damage in Punjab, he has not contributed any funds for relief from his MPLAD allocation (as per GoI Data)
Out of his total MPLAD allocation of Rs 18.82 crore, works worth Rs 70.86 lakh have been completed so far. He has recommended projects worth Rs 4.46 crore, while the total expenditure on completed and ongoing works stands at Rs 3.18 crore (as per GoI Data).
Reacting to his removal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann described the move as routine. However, AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj said Chadha had been sent to the Rajya Sabha specifically to raise Punjab’s issues and was expected to represent the concerns of lakhs of farmers in the state.
