AAP suffers major jolt, 7 out of 10 Rajya Sabha MPs join BJP

AAM Aadmi Party (AAP) headed to a major split on Friday as 7 out of its 10 members in Rajya Sabha announced joining the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). These members will not face provision of anti defection law.

The members include Raghav Chadda, Sandeep Phatak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjeet Sahney, and Swati Maliwal. With this, AAP will now have Sanjay Singh and Narain Dass Gupta from Delhi and Sant Balbir Singh from Punjab in Rajya Sabha.

The party has three members, Raj Kumar Chabbewal, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and Malvinder Singh Kang (all from Punjab) in the Lok Sabha.

“As per the Constitution, two-thirds of the total MPs of a party can merge with another party. We have submitted a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan in this regard today, along with all the required documents,” Chadha announced in a press conference here which was also attended by Mittal, and Pathak. Since the numbers represent more than 2/3rd of the total strength of the party in the Rajya Sabha, so they will not face action under ant-defection law.

“The BJP has once again betrayed Punjabis, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said in a post on X.

Reacting to this decision, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann dubbed AAP’s Rajya Sabha members, who quit the party and announced joining the BJP, as “gaddars” (traitors). “BJP was trying to break the AAP and had betrayed the people of Punjab. When they did not find anything against Bhagwant Mann, they tried to break AAP, said Mann

According to him, they are perturbed that Mann is becoming the leader of people. “People of Punjab are with AAP; they firmly stand with the party,” he said, while adding that the party is bigger than an individual, and 6-7 people who have left do not comprise Punjab.

Sanjay Singh, AAP MP said: “The people of Punjab should remember these seven names. They will never forgive those who have betrayed them. He claimed that the party made Raghav Chadha an MLA and an MP. What did the people of Punjab not give him? How much love did they show by sending him to the Rajya Sabha? And now, he has gone into the lap of the BJP, Singh said.

“The party gave Sandeep Pathak the opportunity to reach the Rajya Sabha with the love and blessings of the people of Punjab and entrusted him with major responsibilities. Rajendra Gupta, look at his journey and how far the party took him to the Rajya Sabha,” Singh said.

Further, Vikram Sahney, Ashok Mittal, and Swati Maliwal were all elevated by the AAP and the people of Punjab from the grassroots to the Rajya Sabha. Even Harbhajan Singh was allowed to reach the Parliament with the love and blessings of the people of Punjab. But these seven individuals have stabbed the people of Punjab in the back.

“They have betrayed them and have worked to obstruct a government in Punjab that was serving the people,” Singh said.