Seven Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party, including Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, quit the party and joined the BJP on Friday.
Chadha’s dramatic exit came weeks after he was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. The party also asked that Chadha not be allotted any speaking time from the AAP’s official quota in the House.
Two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs join BJP
AAP has replaced Punjab MP Ashok Mittal as deputy leader in the upper house. On Friday, Mittal also joined the BJP along with Chadha.
At a press conference, Chadha, accompanied by Pathak and Mittal, said that two-thirds of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MPs had left the party and would join the BJP as a faction.
Chadha said party MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are also leaving AAP along with Rajendra Gupta and Vikram Sahni.
AAP had a total of 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha and when seven of them switched parties, they would have avoided disqualification under the Anti-Graft Act.
“In the Rajya Sabha, the Aam Aadmi Party has 10 MPs. More than two-thirds of them are with us on this initiative,” Chadha said.
“They have already signed and this morning we submitted all the required documentation, including signed letters and other formal documents, to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha,” Chadha added.
AAP is working only for its own benefit: Chadha
Chadha said the party was no longer working for the country but for its own benefit.
“Over the past few years, I have increasingly felt that I am the right person in the wrong party. Today I am announcing my decision to leave AAP and work more closely with the public,” he said.
Reacting to the exit of Chadha and other MPs, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said the AAP leadership should introspect.
BJP betrayed people of Punjab: AAP
Reacting to the development, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP has once again betrayed the people of Punjab after seven Rajya Sabha MPs quit the party.
In a post on X, Kejriwal said, “BJP has betrayed Punjab again.”
AAP leader Sanjay Singh also echoed Kejriwal and said the people of Punjab will not forgive the seven who left.
In a press conference after the mass defection to the BJP, Singh accused the party of a conspiracy to hinder the good work of the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab.
The people of Punjab will never forgive the MPs who left the Aam Aadmi Party, Singh said.
