4 min readApr 25, 2026 05:44 PM IST First published on: Apr 25, 2026 at 05:44 PM ISTAbout two-thirds of AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha, led by Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak, declared that they would merge the parliamentary party with the BJP. This did not surprise me. The announcement was a formality, the inevitable result of the kind of people who were promoted in the party and given positions of power, at the expense of those who were honest and loyal to the cause of the Anna Movement.For some time now, AAP has refused to go back to the drawing board and carry out a course correction. This is not the party we all knew. That was a party of revolution, with the potential to change the course of Indian politics. It was the one party with the character and will to take people along to reinvent the corrupt political system. When AAP forgot that its biggest resource was not money, power, or institutions but moral capital, its decline began.AdvertisementAlso Read | Raghav Chadha and six MPs split with AAP underlines urgency of strengthening inner-party democracyTo begin with, AAP had attracted brilliant people from all walks of life — social workers, activists, lawyers, diplomats, journalists, corporate managers, software engineers, and doctors. They were successful in their respective fields, stars in their own ways; they did not need a political party to shine. They joined AAP because they genuinely felt the nation needed to change course if it had to realise its potential.When the country reacted massively to the call given by the Anna Movement to fight the curse of corruption, these people wanted to be fellow travellers on that revolutionary journey. Unfortunately, this journey could not reach its destination because the movement was led by people without vision.It is ironic that a party that was the product of a movement for transparency and democratisation reduced itself to a one-man outfit. AAP had criticised traditional parties for their “high command culture”. Within, it fashioned a “super-high command” where no leader, no minister and no office-bearer mattered except one man. The rest were mere automatons, who were to say and do what they were told.AdvertisementGiven this state, a disconnect between the leader and the party was inevitable. And whenever a party or organisation ceases to be democratic, it turns into a system to further the career of the chosen ones. These people are smart enough to realise that they don’t have to be loyal to the party but to the leader. In the last few years, AAP was adorned with such people from top to bottom. They became MPs, MLAs and ministers. Selfless volunteers suffered due to the arrogance of such leaders.What is most puzzling is that, unlike Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal has the unique knack of losing his closest lieutenants. The list is long. Raghav Chadha was once Kejriwal’s blue-eyed boy. He was put in charge of Punjab and was credited with AAP’s success in the state. After it formed the state government, he was considered Kejriwal’s eyes and ears. But when the party was in trouble and its top leadership imprisoned, he was nowhere to be seen.Similarly, Sandeep Pathak was once the most powerful person in the AAP. The entire party structure was at his disposal. Though he kept a low profile, he was also instrumental in AAP’s success in Punjab.Another rebel, Swati Maliwal, was a member of Kejriwal’s core team even before the Anna Movement. She became the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women at a very young age. She was promoted as a Rajya Sabha MP, ignoring the claims of senior leaders. Ironically, she parted ways with Kejriwal in the most acrimonious way.All three leaders owed their political careers to only one man, but he could not retain them, and they have moved on to explore greener pastures.AAP has been unable to craft an institutional framework that can deal with the kind of crisis it faces today, or retain those who owe their place in public life to it. The party, and particularly its leader, needs to introspect on this failure to build a team.The writer is co-founder of SatyaHindi and author of Reclaiming Bharat