Seven AAP MPs Officially Join BJP After Chairman Approves Merger
Arvind Kejriwal's party is reduced to just three seats in the Upper House while the BJP gains a stronger majority.
In a major political development on Monday, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially approved the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party MPs with the Bharatiya Janata Party. This decision has drastically altered the balance of power in the Upper House of Parliament.
The move boosts the BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha to 113 members. For the AAP, this is a massive setback as their representation has been slashed from ten to just three MPs.
The seven members who made the switch are Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta. The official Rajya Sabha website has already been updated to reflect this change and now lists them as part of the BJP’s parliamentary group.
This formal acceptance followed a petition filed by the seven MPs on Friday. They had requested the Chairman to recognize them as BJP members immediately after announcing their decision to leave the AAP.
The AAP leadership has strongly opposed this transition. On Sunday, the party submitted a fresh petition to the Chairman seeking the immediate disqualification and termination of these seven members. AAP MP Sanjay Singh personally handed over a notice demanding their removal for voluntarily giving up their party membership.
The defectors have defended their decision by claiming the AAP has strayed from its original principles. They allege that under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, the party has abandoned its core values and founding morals. The mass resignation on Friday sent shockwaves through the political circles and marked a significant jolt to the AAP leadership.