Raghav Chadha: The troubles of Raghav Chadha, who left Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined BJP, seem to be increasing. After making a major reshuffle in Delhi politics, his popularity has now suffered a big blow. Chadha not only joined BJP himself but also took six Rajya Sabha MPs of AAP with him, making it difficult for Kejriwal’s party to manage its clan.

This decision of joining BJP is not being liked by the youth, especially ‘Gen-Z’. There was talk of his changing sides after he was removed from the post of Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha some time ago, but the internet world has not taken it in a positive light.

Public’s anger visible on Instagram
In today’s digital era, social media followers are considered a measure of a leader’s popularity. According to statistics, within 24 hours of joining BJP, Chadha’s followers on Instagram have decreased by about 10 lakhs. Till Friday he had 14.6 million followers, which dropped to 13.5 million by 1 pm on Saturday. NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande tweeted, “Chaddha has lost 10 lakh followers due to the ‘unfollow’ campaign on social media. Internet can make you a hero overnight, but it can also turn you into dust.”

Why was Raghav Chaddha popular?
Raghav Chaddha had created a distinct identity for himself among the youth. He raised those issues in Parliament which were related to the everyday life of the common people and were often ignored in politics. These included:

• Expensive samosas at the airport.
• Paternity leave (leave given to the father).
• Traffic problems and data limits of telecom companies.
• Exploitation of delivery partners (Gig Workers).

Recently, he himself became a Blinkit delivery partner for a day so that he could understand their problems. The effect of his efforts was that the government directed the companies to remove the mandatory time of ’10-minute delivery’. All these works had created his image as a ‘reconciled and people-oriented’ leader.

There was discussion about forming one’s own party.
When Chadha was removed from the post of Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha, he received huge public support. He himself had shared an Instagram reel in which a user had advised him to make his own ‘Gen-G Party’. That user had then also warned that if Chadha went to any other party, he might have to face hatred. Chadha had called it an “interesting idea”, leading to speculations that he would form his own new party. But he chose BJP.

#UnfollowRaghavChadha trended on social media
After this step of Chaddha, many influential people like mountaineer Rohtash Khileri, who spent 24 hours without oxygen on Mount Elbrus, have unfollowed him. #UnfollowRaghavChadha is trending on Twitter. Also, people’s attention was drawn to the fact that Raghav Chadha has deleted old posts criticizing PM Modi and BJP from his social media account. AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj quipped that now only two posts with the name ‘Modi’ are left on his profile and both have praised the Prime Minister.