RAJYA Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan on Monday officially accepted the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal’s party in the Upper House to three. After this transition, the BJP’s strength in the Upper House has increased to 113. Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta are the seven MPs who merged with the BJP. The Rajya Sabha website now shows that the seven MPs are part of the BJP list of members. Of the total seven MPs representing Punjab in Rajya Sabha, six are with the BJP and only one remains with AAP. In Delhi, of the total three MPs two now remain with the AAP and one with the BJP. Sanjay Singh and N D Gupta (both AAP) and Swati Maliwal (BJP) represent Delhi in Rajya Sabha. The seven MPs petitioned the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Friday to be treated as BJP MPs after the merger, sources said, adding the petition has been accepted.

 

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju welcomed the seven MPs into the NDA, and said they have bid goodbye to the “Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance”. “Honb’le Chairman Rajya Sabha Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan Ji has accepted the merger of 7 AAP MPs with BJP. Now, Raghav Chadha ji, Sandeep Pathak ji, Ashok Mittal ji, Harbhajan Singh ji, Swati Maliwal ji, Rajinder Gupta ji and Vikramjit Singh Sahney ji are Members of BJP Parliamentary Party,” he said on X. “For a long time I’ve observed that these 7 Honb’le MPs have not resorted to abusive languages and never created any indiscipline and Un-Parliamentary conducts,” Rijiju said in a post on X. “Welcome to nation building NDA under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and good bye to Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance,” the Minister said.

 

The AAP had earlier on Sunday termed their merger as “unconstitutional” and said they have moved a petition before the RS Chairman seeking the termination of the membership of the seven MPs, who had switched sides. AAP MP Sanjay Singh had said that he has submitted a petition to Chairman Radhakrishnan seeking the disqualification of the seven party MPs in the Upper House who recently quit the AAP and announced their merger with the BJP. On Friday last, the AAP suffered a jolt when the seven Rajya Sabha MPs quit and announced their merger with the BJP, alleging that the Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Chadha announced on Friday that exercising the provisions of the Constitution, more than two-thirds of the AAP MPs in Rajya Sabha have merged with the BJP. He said seven MPs signed the document, which was submitted to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and he personally handed over the signed documents.

 

 

 

AAP will move to court if the seven former party MPs are not disqualified under the anti-defection law, said Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Monday, as the chairman of the Upper House accepted their merger with the BJP. He alleged that the objections raised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its demand for their disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution had not been considered. “The Chairman has taken cognisance of the letter submitted by those seven MPs and based on that, accepted their merger. The objection raised by us and the disqualification we sought under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution have not even been considered,” Singh said. He said the party was hopeful that once its letter is examined, the Chairman would act in favour of the Constitution and democracy by disqualifying the seven members. “If that does not happen, we will approach the court. It is wrong to break a party in this manner,” he said.

 

Singh had written to the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Sunday, seeking the disqualification of the seven members and arguing that their move violated the anti-defection provisions under the Constitution. On Friday, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs -- Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal -- quit and merged with the BJP, alleging that the party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.