Kejriwal will vote for Congress, Rahul will vote for AAP: Raghav Chadha

In his first poll meeting for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after returning from the UK following an eye surgery, AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday, 21 May, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will be voting for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi will be voting for the AAP when the national capital goes to the polls.

Addressing a poll meeting in South Delhi in support of the party's Lok Sabha pick, Sahi Ram Pahalwan, Chadha said, "I am here to support my brother not only because he is a good person but also because this election is about saving the country and the Constitution."

The future of your children depends on your vote, the Rajya MP told the gathering.

Also present at the meeting was the Congress' Sachin Pilot, to support Pahalwan. The Congress and the AAP, as INDIA bloc allies, are in a seat-sharing partnership in Delhi — of the seven seats for the NCT, three are being contested by Congress candidates and four by AAP leaders.

In a nod to his Congress counterpart in an X post, Chadha referred to Pilot as 'big brother' (bade bhai)

With questions being raised over Chadha's long absence even as Delhi chief minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal was arrested, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj had said Chadha had developed a serious eye ailment which could have led to blindness and was therefore in the UK for surgery.

Upon his return, Chadha was first seen electioneering at the party's protest on Sunday, 19 May, at the BJP headquarters. 

"Since the AAP came into power, people of Delhi have saved around Rs 18,000 per month on electricity, medicines, water, school fees, and women also save on bus travel costs," Chadha said.

In return, the AAP are only asking for votes, he said, to keep doing the same good work.

"Press on the jhadoo (the AAP's poll symbol) on the 25th and support Kejriwal," Chadha said, adding:

Chadha himself contested from the South Delhi constituency in 2019 and lost to Ramesh Bidhuri of BJP. This time, a different Bidhuri — Ram Vir Singh Bidhuri — has been given the ticket, instead of the sitting MP who courted controversy with anti-Muslim slurs against a fellow MP on the floor of Parliament.

Expressing confidence in a strong victory for the Congress–AAP alliance in the national capital, Chadha said, "This time, I believe that we will win with the highest number of votes in South Delhi."

All seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi will go to the polls on 25 May.

Based on agency inputs