Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, party leader Sanjay Singh and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann lambasted the seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPS who decided to quit the party and “merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday.
In a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal quit Kejriwal’s party and joined the BJP in the presence of the BJP’s national chief Nitin Nabin.
The development came in the backdrop of a showdown that had ensued between Chadha and other AAP leaders earlier this month. After Chadha was removed as AAP deputy leader in the upper house of Parliament, several party leaders accused him of being soft towards the BJP.
Before formally joining the BJP, Raghav Chadha said a total of seven Rajya Sabha MPs, appointed by the AAP in the Upper House, will be “merging with the BJP.”
Arvind Kejriwal dropped a one-line bombshell on X after Raghav Chadha’s announcement. His statement read, “The BJP has once again given Punjabis a shove.”
The Rajya Sabha had 10 MPs from the AAP. Of them, seven were from Punjab and three from Delhi.
‘Gaddars’
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday dubbed AAP’s Rajya Sabha members, who quit the party and announced joining the BJP, as “gaddars” (traitors).
Mann alleged that the BJP was trying to break the AAP and had “betrayed the people of Punjab.”
“When they did not find anything against Bhagwant Mann, they tried to break AAP,” said Mann, who returned on Friday after nearly a week-long visit to the Netherlands and Finland to attract investments for his state.
He also said that the party is bigger than an individual, and 6-7 people who have left do not comprise Punjab.
“…BJP has betrayed Punjab…The same washing machine was used at the party of Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress…BJP has no base in Punjab…,” Mann said.
Raghav Chadha’s big announcement
Chadha held a press conference on Friday to announce that he, along with six other AAP Rajya Sabha PMs, are quitting the party and “merging with the BJP.”
“As per the Constitution, two-thirds of the total MPs of a party can merge with another party,” Chadha said.
Chadha also named six other leaders who were quitting AAP. They were Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni, Swati Maliwal and Ashok Mittal.
In a post on X, Chaddha announced, “Today, exercising the provisions of the Constitution of India, more than two-thirds of the AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha have merged with the BJP.”
“Seven MPs have signed the document, which was submitted to the Hon’ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. I, along with two other MPs, personally handed over the signed documents,” the post read.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Pathak said he had been associated with the party for a decade but had now decided to part ways. He informed that he had joined AAP, believing in its promise of “new politics and politics of work” while announcing his decision to join the BJP.
“I had never thought that such a situation would ever occur in my life. But it did. I was a part of this party for 10 years. Today, I am separating my path from that of the AAP. When it came to joining a party, I joined AAP because they spoke of new politics and politics of work. In 10 years, I worked hard. All political decisions I made were taken by prioritising the party’s interests,” Pathak said in a press conference here.
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