Chadha, who was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha earlier this month, said at a press conference that he, along with six other MPs, had decided to merge with the BJP. AAP has 10 MPs in the Upper House-seven from Punjab and three from Delhi. Of these, seven have chosen to quit and join the BJP. Chadha named Pathak, Mittal, Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sawhney as part of the group.
Since two-thirds of the party’s MPs have split, the move shields them from disqualification under the anti-defection law, which requires at least two-thirds of legislators to merge with another party to avoid action.
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The development comes a year ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections, the only state where AAP is currently in power. Chadha is widely seen as having played a key role in AAP’s victory in the last election.
Reacting to the development, Kejriwal said in a post on X, “The BJP has once again betrayed Punjabis.”
Chadha accused AAP of straying from its core ideals. “The AAP I gave 15 years of my life to has moved away from honest politics. I am the right person in the wrong party. I am stepping away to be closer to the people. The AAP today is corrupt and compromised,” he said, adding that the decision to merge with the BJP had been formally communicated to the Rajya Sabha.
AAP launched a sharp counterattack, calling the defections a calculated attempt by the Modi-Shah leadership to undermine the Bhagwant Mann government’s pro-people initiatives.
Also read: Raghav Chadha, 2 other AAP MPs formally join BJP after exiting Kejriwal’s bloc
Senior leader Sanjay Singh termed the move a “betrayal of Punjab,” alleging that central agencies were being used to engineer defections. He cited the recent ED raid on Mittal’s premises as evidence of “pressure tactics.”
Singh also argued that the BJP was targeting AAP’s welfare measures, including free electricity, expanded healthcare cover and irrigation reforms. He dismissed Chadha’s claims of seeking “honesty” in the BJP, accusing the party of pushing “anti-farmer laws” and enabling “organised corruption” through electoral bonds.
