A major upset was seen in Delhi politics on Friday, when Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha left the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, now it seems that his political move is not going down well with the youth—especially Gen Z. The image he had created among Gen Z seems to be tarnished after this decision.
In today’s digital age, social media followers are often considered a yardstick to measure a person’s popularity. Statistics show that after suddenly joining BJP, Chadha lost almost one million followers on Instagram in less than 24 hours.
According to statistics, Raghav Chadha had 14.6 million followers on Instagram on Friday. By 1:00 pm Saturday, that figure had fallen to 13.5 million. This means that in less than 24 hours, almost one million people ‘unfollowed’ him. The hashtag #unfollowRaghavChadha is currently trending on social media, with young voters expressing their anger and calling the move a “betrayal”.
NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande tweeted, “Raghav Chaddha’s number of followers has dropped by 1 million (10 lakh) in 24 hours, due to the ‘unfollow’ campaign run by Gen Z, which is going viral on Instagram.” He further said, “The Internet can make you a hero overnight. It can also make you a zero overnight.”
‘Cleansing’ of anti-Modi posts
There is also a strong discussion in the political circles that as soon as he joined BJP, Raghav Chadha removed the old posts from his social media handles in which he had criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that there are now only two posts mentioning Modi left on Chadha’s timeline—and both of them are in praise of the prime minister.
Raghav Chadha had carved a niche for himself among the youth by raising “soft issues” like “paternity leave”, problems of “gig workers”, and “10-minute delivery”. He even worked as a delivery partner for Blinkit one day. This image of an “accessible” leader gave him a distinct identity from the world of traditional politics. However, given his association with the BJP… this decision has disappointed a large section of his supporters.
Despite being removed from the post of AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha received overwhelming support. The AAP MP—who is married to Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra—also shared a reel on Instagram in which a user suggested that Chadha should start her own ‘Gen Z Party’. Among those who unfollowed him was mountaineer Rohtash Khileri, who recently became the world’s first person to spend 24 hours on Europe’s Mount Elbrus without the help of any additional oxygen. Political analyst Deeksha Kandpal tweeted, “Look at Raghav Chadha’s latest Instagram post; look at the number of comments related to unfollowing. I can see a lot of youth saying that they are unfollowing him.”
It remains to be seen how Raghav Chadha—considered an expert in data and strategy—will compensate for this digital loss, and whether he will be able to regain his lost credibility among the youth.