The mass exodus, led by Raghav Chadha, reshapes India’s Upper House arithmetic and throws AAP’s Punjab future into uncertainty
In a seismic political rupture, seven Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MPs including prominent faces Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Swati Maliwal, and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh formally merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday, delivering the sharpest blow yet to Arvind Kejriwal’s crumbling national ambitions.
Chadha, who framed the defection as a matter of conscience, declared he had spent 15 years as “the right man in the wrong party.” Since the seven MPs constitute over two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha strength, they are likely shielded from disqualification under the anti-defection law a legal threshold the party itself contests.
AAP has filed for disqualification of three MPs publicly seen joining BJP headquarters, while Kejriwal called the departures an act of “betrayal.” Opposition leaders labelled the episode a textbook “Operation Lotus.” Anna Hazare, the moral godfather of AAP’s founding movement, offered perhaps the most stinging verdict: the party simply lost its way.
The NDA’s Rajya Sabha tally rises; AAP’s relevance outside Punjab hangs by a thread.
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