THE Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered a jolt on Friday as seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, quit the party, with Chadha saying all of them had merged with the BJP, asserting that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni and Swati Maliwal were the other four parliamentarians in the group of seven. Their move came as a surprise to many, as the exits were disclosed at a hurriedly called press conference at Constitution Club in central Delhi. The blow to AAP marked the largest coordinated defection in the Upper House in recent years.

 

The BJP extended a warm welcome to the MPs as party President Nitin Nabin offered them traditional sweets. “Welcomed Raghav Chadha Ji, Sandeep Pathak Ji, and Ashok Mittal Ji to the BJP family at the Party HQ today. Also, best wishes to Harbhajan Singh Ji, Swati Maliwal Ji, Vikram Sahney Ji, and Rajinder Gupta ji to work under the dynamic leadership of PM Narendra Modi towards the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047,” Nabin said in a post on X shortly thereafter. Chadha at the press conference said that the seven MPs had merged with the BJP as the AAP was no longer honouring its founding principles. “The AAP, that I nurtured with my blood and sweat and to which I gave 15 years of my youth, has completely strayed from its principles, values and core morals,” he said. Chadha was recently removed as the deputy leader of the AAP in the Rajya Sabha and was replaced by Mittal.

 

“As per the Constitution, two-thirds of the total MPs of a party can merge with another party,” Chadha said, referring to the party’s strength of 10 MPs. “They have already signed, and this morning we submitted all the required documentation, including signed letters and other formal paperwork, to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha,” Chadha said. Pathak, who held the post of national General Secretary in the AAP, also said the party had diverted from the principles on which it was founded. Of the seven MPs, six come from Punjab, including Chadha, Pathak, Mittal, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahni, and Harbhajan Singh, while Swati Maliwal is from Delhi. The three Rajya Sabha MPs who still remain with the party are Sanjay Singh, ND Gupta and Balbir Singh Seechewal. AAP sources said the exits were aimed at destabilising the party before the Assembly elections in Punjab next year and admitted that the party was on guard to keep its flock together in the State. After the arrest of Kejriwal in the liquor policy case in 2024, Chadha’s major assignments were taken away.

 

The big flashpoint arrived when he was removed as deputy leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha last month. Maliwal alleged that Kejriwal shielded individuals involved in misconduct. In a post on X, Maliwal said she had chosen the path of national and public service in 2006 but was ultimately frustrated with the party. “From the RTI movement and the Anna movement to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party and my eight years of dedicated service at the Delhi Commission for Women, I contributed with absolute honesty and devotion at every stage,” she said. “With great sorrow today, I must say that the principles, values and resolve for honest politics with which we began this journey have been abandoned by Arvind Kejriwal ji and, at his behest, the entire Aam Aadmi Party,” she added. Fourteen years after it emerged from the anti-corruption movement with a promise to redraw India’s political map, the AAP is facing one of its toughest setbacks. Born in Delhi in November 2012 out of street protests and citizen anger against graft, the party quickly turned into a formidable political force, clinching victories in Delhi first in 2013, then later in 2015 and 2020 and later expanding its footprint to Punjab.