A day after Raghav Chadha triggered a political shake-up in the national capital by quitting the AAP and joining the BJP, his popularity seems to have taken a hit. Chadha also took six AAP Rajya MPs with him to the BJP, leaving the Arvind Kejriwal-led party scrambling to keep its flock together. The move to the BJP by Chadha, which was widely anticipated after he was removed as AAP's deputy leader of Rajya Sabha weeks ago, doesn't seem to have impressed Gen Z.
In today's digital age, social media followers are often seen as a barometer of gauging one's popularity. Data shows that Chadha lost nearly one million followers on Instagram in under 24 hours after his shock switch to the BJP. On Friday, the 37-year-old Rajya Sabha MP had 14.6 million followers. At 1 pm on Saturday, his follower count dropped to 13.5 million.
Political commentators suggested that the youth, particularly Gen Z, were driving the backlash against Chadha. Will the data-driven politician be able to digest the data and script a turnaround?
"A viral Gen Z 'unfollow' campaign on Instagram has led to Raghav Chadha's followers dropping by 10 lakh in 24 hours," tweeted NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande. "The internet can make you a hero overnight. The internet can also bring you down to zero overnight," he further said.
In fact, Chadha carved out a niche for himself among the youth after he constantly raised issues that directly affected people's daily lives - most of which get overlooked in political discourse.
It ranged from paternity leave, traffic crisis, daily data limits by telecom companies, to even "soft issues" like expensive samosas at airports and exploitation of gig workers through 10-minute delivery models. He even worked as a Blinkit delivery partner for a day to experience the challenges of gig workers.
It finally bore fruit after the Centre mandated delivery companies to remove the mandatory 10-minute delivery deadline. All these things cultivated Chadha's image as an accessible politician.
His focus on such Gen Z-centric issues in the Rajya Sabha helped bridge the gap between traditional politics and youth aspirations. Chadha was seen as a different breed of leaders.
Even when Chadha was removed as the depute leader of AAP in the Rajya Sabha, he received an outpouring of support. The AAP MP, who is married to Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra, also shared an Instagram reel where the user suggested that Chadha should form a "Gen Z party" of his own.
Prophetically, the user, called Rihan, had said that if Chadha joined some other party, he might be subjected to hatred. While sharing the post, Chadha termed it an "interesting thought". It led to fervent speculation that he would float his own party.
However, Chadha eventually chose the BJP. With it, his support base also seems to be shifting.
Among those who unfollowed him was mountaineer Rohtash Khileri, who recently became the first person in the world to stay for 24 hours on Europe's Mount Elbrus without oxygen support.
"Go to Raghav Chadha's first post on Instagram, see how many unfollow comments are there. I can see a lot of young people asking to unfollow," political commentator Diksha Kandpal tweeted.
In fact, a trend with the hashtag "unfollowRaghavChadha" is already gaining momentum. Several users also pointed out that Chadha has deleted old posts from his social media handles critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
Senior AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj flagged that only two posts mentioning "Modi" remain on Chadha's timeline. Both are in praise of the prime minister.
It remains to be seen if the articulate and data-driven politician will be able to revive his popularity among the youth.
