Since joining the “India Against Corruption” movement in 2011 at the age of 22, Raghav Chadha has become the face of youth in Indian politics. Raghav’s inspiring story traces the journey of a young boy who went from spending his days in a cushy corporate job to working among the people, trading a life of ease and plenty for one of meaning and impact.
Born in 1988 to a lawyer father and home-maker mother, Raghav was brought up in Delhi and completed his undergraduate studies in Delhi University. During this period, he became one of the youngest students from his batch to successfully clear the arduous Chartered Accountancy exam.
After college, he immediately began working in the corporate world as CA with several leading MNCs; and then went on to study at the London School of Economics. He had just set up his own wealth management advisory in London when the “India Against Corruption” movement started back home.
In that moment, Raghav found an opportunity to serve the country perhaps not as a soldier as was his childhood dream but as an educated young man. He flew back and immediately joined the fight for political revolution alongside thousands of Indians. When the time came for Raghav to decide between a lucrative corporate job in London or joining the political battlefield in Delhi, he chose a life of service to the motherland and joined the recently-conceived Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Raghav’s journey started with working with teams from the grassroots, field experts and academics to drafting the party’s manifesto for Delhi elections. His exemplary oratory skills in Hindi and English, and bulletproof reasoning made him the natural choice to represent AAP’s point of view as a National Spokesperson, making him one of the youngest spokespersons across party lines. He is widely recognised as the calm and composed voice of reason in panels full of loud and seasoned politicians.
Soon, he was involved in the drafting of the budget, working briefly but closely with the Finance Minister as advisor to the Delhi Government to give education and healthcare their due importance. These services were offered for a token salary of Re. 1 per month, the full sum of which, Rs. 2.5, has since been returned to the MHA after the retrospective sacking of multiple Delhi Government advisors.
At the age of 26, he was appointed as the party’s national treasurer and was later called upon to lead the legal cell. Raghav Chadha has proved to be AAP’s crisis man, the trustworthy youngster at the centre of every crisis and at the end of every long-fought battle.
In May 2019, Raghav made his electoral debut by contesting India’s General Elections from the South Delhi seat against a three-time Member of Legislative Assembly and sitting Member of Parliament. Remarkably, despite being the youngest and having the lowest net worth of all major candidates, he came in second, securing 320,000 votes in what came to be known as a highly polarising election nationwide.
