From an ordinary volunteer to a battle-hardened General

AAP senior leader Raghav Chadha took oath as a member of the upper house of the parliament is Rajyasabha on Monday. Raghav is often labelled as a young scion honed with creativity & resilience who is leading the Aam Aadmi Party's efforts in Punjab, after registering his mark in Delhi. He is not just seen reflecting his political acumen towards nation building, but also empowering the organisation, structuring & executing the campaigns for the party across several states particularly, New Delhi & largely in Punjab.

His long standing mission has also been towards empowering the youth of India and bringing them to the forefront of politics. He came to limelight as the youngest national spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party who was seen debating seasoned politicians on news channels daily. It is these appearances that have given him a fan base of masses declaring love for him on social media.

There is an interesting story about how AAP happened to Shri Raghav Chadha. He went to Modern School, Barakhamba & pursued B.Com from Delhi University & then Chartered Accountancy. Immediately after completing education, he started working at firms like Grant Thornton, Deloitte, amongst others. He then went to the London School of Economics, and had set up a boutique wealth management firm there. He was at the juncture right after qualifying as a chartered accountant & exploring a life outside of India. It was during those years that the Anna Aandolan was on and towards its last leg, the decision of whether to form a party or not was being taken, and he ended up meeting Shri Arvind Kejriwal, who wanted him to get involved in the drafting of the Delhi Lokpal Bill, back in 2012, as his first task.

At the onset of his political journey, he fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully but came second on his seat, being the highest vote scorer among all AAP candidates in New Delhi. In February 2020, he contested from the Rajinder Nagar constituency in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections and recorded a commendable win against BJP's behemoth candidate RP Singh, with a margin of 20,058 votes. Following the elections, he was awarded with an additional charge of being the Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and assigned the task of providing clean water to Delhiites. He immediately took to his office and announced Delhi Jal Board’s key priorities being 24x7 supply of clean piped water to all households and cleaning the Yamuna within the stipulated timeline of his tenure. He also started a 24x7 helpline in Rajinder Nagar Vidhan Sabha, as a direct way to connect with the assembly’s MLA Raghav Chadha, but it soon turned into a ‘lifeline’ for the residents of the area during the lockdown which resolved issues for over hundreds of residents in real-time during the day.

A bona fide Youth Icon, Shri Raghav Chadha, under the charismatic guidance of Delhi CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal, strongly propels the ideals of clean politics, affordable politics & volunteerism. He was soon appointed as the party’s co-incharge for the Punjab unit ahead of assembly polls in the state in 2022. Punjab was going through challenging times, and with efforts towards ensuring education and prosperity for the masses, he undertook a responsibility to change Punjab's circumstances, and succeed in making the Punjab state Rangla and Sunehra. It was a mammoth of a job to breach the fortress of conventional parties and nurture giant-slayers in the cradles of humble honest politics. Following the footsteps of CM Arvind Kejriwal, his guide & mentor as he calls him, who has truly transformed the way politics functions, Chadha went head-on to the challenge. He drove the party's campaigns to an unmatchable and unprecedented victory, winning 92 seats in an assembly of 117.

Netizens lovingly call him the face of changing politics of India. His rise, in the party ranks, and in the political arena is a testament to that change itself. Soon after the Punjab triumph, the blue eyed boy of AAP was entrusted to represent the state of Punjab in the Rajya Sabha.