New Delhi, 24 April (H.S.):

A major split has surfaced within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday, as seven of its Rajya Sabha members, led by MP Raghav Chadha, announced their decision to quit the party and merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This move effectively leaves AAP with only three representatives in the Upper House of Parliament.

The exit was formally announced at a press conference held at the Constitution Club in Delhi, where Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, and Ashok Mittal declared their resignation from AAP and their forthcoming merger with the BJP along with four other Rajya Sabha members.

Raghav Chadha claimed that of AAP’s 10 members in the Rajya Sabha, more than two‑thirds had signed a consent letter, and the signed documents had been submitted to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha that morning.

He named the other defectors as Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahni, and Swati Maliwal, asserting that only three MPs—Sanjay Singh, N.D. Gupta, and Balbir Singh Suchewal—now remain with AAP in the Upper House.

Explaining his decision, Chadha said he had long stayed away from AAP activities because he did not want to be complicit in what he termed the party leadership’s “sins.” Calling himself “right person in the wrong party,” he alleged that AAP, which he claimed to have nurtured with “blood and sweat,” had strayed from its original principles and now worked for private interests rather than the national good.

He added that he felt he was “on the wrong side with the right values,” and that leaving AAP was his way of moving closer to the people and the mainstream.

Under the anti‑defection law, the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, if two‑thirds or more of a party’s MPs or MLAs unite to defect at the same time, their membership is not disqualified, allowing them to formally merge with another party.

With 106 BJP members already in the Rajya Sabha, the induction of seven AAP MPs will raise the BJP’s tally to 113 and sharply reduce AAP’s presence in the House.

The break comes in the wake of AAP’s move on April 2 to remove Raghav Chadha as the Deputy Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha and to bar him from speaking in the House, appointing Ashok Mittal in his place.

Raghav Chadha hit back on April 3 through social media, saying he had always raised issues linked to the common people and was in Parliament to hold the government accountable, not to create a spectacle. Referring sharply to the leadership, he said, “Every lie will be exposed, because I am hurt, and therefore dangerous.”

The controversy that erupted on April 2 has now, in 22 days, crystallised into a serious political crisis for the AAP.

Who is Raghav Chadha?

Born on November 11, 1988, in Delhi, Chadha completed his schooling at Modern School, Barakhamba Road, and later earned a graduate degree from Shri Venkateshwara College, University of Delhi. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA) from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

He first met Arvind Kejriwal during the 2013 Anna movement and quickly became a youth spokesperson for AAP, helping draft the Delhi Lokpal Bill in 2012 and being part of the team that prepared the party’s 2013 manifesto.

Chadha also served as the party’s treasurer and contested the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 elections, losing to the BJP candidate.

In 2020 he won the Rajinder Nagar Assembly seat in Delhi, and in 2022 was nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, becoming at 33 the youngest member of the Upper House.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar