A day after crossing the floor to join the BJP, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has offered what he calls an explanation for the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) crushing defeat in the 2025 Delhi assembly elections: the row over a "Sheesh Mahal".
Chadha, who joined Delhi and Centre's ruling BJP on Friday along with six other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, said the controversy over Arvind Kejriwal's official residence as chief minister was not merely a political embarrassment. He argued it eroded the moral credibility that the AAP had spent over a decade building.
"If there was one major reason for the Aam Aadmi Party's loss in the Delhi elections, the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ was one of the main reasons," Chadha said, adding that the row had “badly damaged the image of AAP”.
Chadha's now-party BJP has already started allegations of “Sheesh Mahal 2” too. He was speaking in that light as well. He has earlier said he left the AAP and was mostly inactive for the past few years because, “I did not want to be a part of their sins."
What's the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ controversy
The term “Sheesh Mahal” (literally, Hindustani for ‘glass palace’) was deployed by the BJP to mock the extensive renovation of Kejriwal's official 6 Flagstaff Road bungalow in Civil Lines, and it became one of the most potent symbols of the BJP's campaign ahead of the 2025 Delhi polls.
{{/usCountry}}The term “Sheesh Mahal” (literally, Hindustani for ‘glass palace’) was deployed by the BJP to mock the extensive renovation of Kejriwal's official 6 Flagstaff Road bungalow in Civil Lines, and it became one of the most potent symbols of the BJP's campaign ahead of the 2025 Delhi polls.
{{/usCountry}}Chadha was mostly absent from the AAP campaign at the time, making occasional appearances since 2023, notably after Kejriwal and others were accused of corruption in the Delhi excise (liquor sales) policy and were arrested — a case in which they have all been discharged by a trial court since.
The BJP at the time alleged that taxpayer money running into crores was spent on designer interiors, Italian marble, and luxury fittings at the residence of Kejriwal was CM, a man who had built his political identity on austerity and anti-corruption.
AAP dismissed the allegations as motivated BJP propaganda and accused the party of misrepresenting construction costs.
Kejriwal vacated the bungalow after resigning as CM in September 2024, following his release from Tihar Jail in the corruption case. However, by then, the narrative had taken root.
Delhi voters delivered a decisive verdict in February 2025, handing the BJP a landslide victory and reducing AAP to a fraction of its earlier strength in the assembly. Kejriwal himself lost from New Delhi constituency.
Since resigning as CM, Kejriwal was staying in a bungalow allotted to AAP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal till this week, before moving out for a different one given to him as a party chief by the government on court's directions. Mittal also moved to the BJP the same day as Kejriwal vacated his house.
‘Sheesh Mahal 2’
Now, Chadha says history is already repeating itself. Referring to fresh allegations made by Delhi minister Parvesh Verma, Chadha claimed a "Sheesh Mahal Part Two" has emerged at a newly allotted bungalow in Lodhi Estate, where Kejriwal now resides.
"Not even a year has passed since the Delhi elections ended, and Sheesh Mahal Part Two has come," Chadha said, "I wonder how the few remaining good workers of AAP will answer people on the streets when asked about this."
Photographs released by Verma allegedly showed lavish construction and renovation work at the property, but the AAP claimed these were fake or simply random downloads from the internet.
Senior AAP leader Atishi, who served as CM briefly after Kejriwal quit ahead of the 2025 polls, challenged the BJP to open the homes of CM Rekha Gupta and the Lieutenant Governor for public scrutiny alongside Kejriwal's, and “let the voters decide”.
Chadha's remarks come amid the most serious organisational crisis in AAP's 13-year history. The simultaneous defection of seven Rajya Sabha MPs — representing two-thirds of the party's Upper House strength — means they won't lose their seats as per the law.