Jalandhar: Following the shocking defection of five Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs, including prominent figures like Raghav Chadha and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), furious AAP workers have launched aggressive protests across Punjab.
In a dramatic show of resentment, angry workers gathered outside Harbhajan Singh’s residence in Jalandhar. A video that has since surfaced online shows protestors forcefully spray-painting the word “Gaddar” (traitor) in both English and Punjabi on the boundary walls of his house, despite attempts by security personnel to intervene.
The anger wasn’t limited to the former cricketer. Similar scenes unfolded outside the Lovely Professional University (LPU) gates, owned by another defecting MP, Ashok Mittal, where protestors inscribed “Traitor of Punjab” in black paint. The office walls of MP Rajinder Gupta were also targeted with similar slogans.
The mass exodus has sparked severe political and public backlash. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann fiercely criticised the defectors, warning that they would face the same marginalisation in the BJP as Captain Amarinder Singh. Furthermore, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh announced that the party would formally write to the Rajya Sabha Chairman demanding the immediate disqualification of the seven MPs, arguing that the anti-defection law does not legally recognise such factionalism, even with a two-thirds majority.
The public anger is palpable online as well. Within 24 hours of his switch to the BJP, Raghav Chadha faced a massive social media boycott, losing over 1 million followers on Instagram as his follower count plummeted from 14.6 million to 13.7 million. A hashtag, “Unfollow Raghav Chadha,” is currently trending, with young voters expressing their profound sense of betrayal.
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