AAP removes Raghav Chadha as Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader, Ashok Mittal named the new leader in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi : Ashok Kumar Mittal will be the new Deputy Leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Rajya Sabha. The party has sent an official letter informing the decision to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, the party stated on Thursday.

Mittal is a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab. He was elected to the House in April 2022 and, since then, has been a part of several parliamentary committees, including the Committee on Defence, the Committee on Finance and in February 2026, he was made a member of the India- USA Parliamentary Friendship Group.

He was also a part of an all-party delegation, led by DMK MP Kanimozhi, which visited Russia, Latvia, Slovenia, Greece, and Spain after the Pahalgam terror attack last year.

Raghav Chadha has also been an MP since April 2022. He has made headlines on several occasions for raising public issues in Parliament.

Last month, Raghav Chadha raised concerns over the practice of “sarpanch pati” or “panchayat pati,” where women elected to reserved Panchayat seats often serve as figureheads while real power is exercised by their male relatives. He urged the government to ensure that women representatives in local bodies can exercise genuine authority as intended under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.

He had also raised the issue of menstrual hygiene in Parliament, stating that it is a matter of health, education and equality, which affects over 35 crore women and girls in India. Chadha said if a girl misses school because there are no sanitary pads, water, and privacy, it is not her personal problem but a collective failure. He added that society has turned a biological fact into a social taboo.

Amid the gig workers’ agitation earlier this year, he had spent a day as a delivery partner to understand firsthand the pressure and challenges associated with the job. (ANI)