New Delhi, 24 April (H.S.): Seven Members of Parliament from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Rajya Sabha have resigned from the party and announced their merger with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The decision, taken by more than two‑thirds of AAP’s Upper‑House contingent, comes as a major political blow to the party in Punjab, which is currently in power in the state.

At a press conference held at the Constitution Club in Delhi, AAP MPs Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak formally announced the move. Chadha said there are 10 AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha and that more than two‑thirds of them have signed letters of consolidation and submitted the documents to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha this morning. The three MPs named before the media were joined by Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney and Swati Maliwal, who are also part of the group moving to the BJP.

Raghav Chadha, formerly the AAP’s leader in the Upper House, said the party he had nurtured for 15 years “had drifted away from its principles, values and basic ethics” and was now functioning more for private benefit than for the larger national interest. He added that he felt he was “the right man in the wrong party” and declared that he was separating himself from AAP to move closer to the people and to the BJP’s national project.

Invoking constitutional provisions on defection, he stated that the group representing two‑thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members had decided to merge with the BJP, thereby avoiding disqualification.

Chadha also praised the three successive terms of the Modi‑led BJP‑led government at the Centre, saying it had taken bold decisions that earlier leaders had hesitated to make, and pledged that the departing MPs would now work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for the good of the country. The event marks one of the largest organised exodus of AAP members to the BJP and significantly alters the arithmetic of AAP’s presence in the Rajya Sabha.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar