Punjab’s Power Equation Shifts as 10 AAP MLAs Defy Party Line, Back Janata Party Chief Navneet Chaturvedi in Rajya Sabha nominations

New Delhi : The Aam Aadmi Party’s grip over Punjab, once considered its strongest bastion, appears to be loosening. Ten of its legislators have thrown their weight behind Janata Party president Navneet Chaturvedi in the upcoming Rajya Sabha bypoll — an unexpected development that has unsettled the state’s political landscape and exposed internal strain within the ruling party.

Chaturvedi, who filed his nomination papers earlier this week, confirmed that his candidature was supported by ten AAP MLAs. The move, unprecedented in the state’s recent political memory, comes at a time when AAP is still recovering from its losses in Delhi and struggling to reassert its national relevance.

The support extended to an outsider has raised eyebrows within AAP’s central leadership. What makes the development politically sensitive is that it challenges the authority of the Punjab unit’s leadership, which has so far maintained a public image of discipline and unity.

According to sources familiar with the matter, some of the dissenting legislators have privately expressed frustration over the central leadership’s “closed-door” style of decision-making, especially on candidate selection and regional representation in the upper house.

For Navneet Chaturvedi, the move has already paid dividends in visibility. As a political figure with no immediate stake in Punjab’s internal politics, he has turned what began as a symbolic nomination into a direct challenge to AAP’s internal coherence.

Backed by 69 additional AAP MLAs besides the initial ten proposers, Chaturvedi now commands a majority strong enough to overturn the party’s own candidate in the Rajya Sabha race. 

“The message is not about numbers — it’s about confidence,” a senior political observer in Chandigarh said. “If ten sitting MLAs are willing to break ranks, it signals a deeper unease that may not end with this election.”

With Delhi lost and the party struggling to expand in other states, Punjab has become AAP’s only centre of political strength. Any sign of disunity here could have lasting consequences for its image as a disciplined, reform-driven alternative.

Whether Chaturvedi’s challenge translates into an electoral upset remains to be seen. But the optics of the moment are unmistakable: an outsider filing his nomination with the signatures of ten AAP legislators has already dented the party’s image of absolute control in Punjab.

For a party that rose to prominence promising clean politics and collective decision-making, this episode underlines a growing paradox — the widening gap between its message and its machinery.

As Punjab braces for the Rajya Sabha contest, AAP’s internal cohesion — more than its numbers — may decide how the story unfolds.