Reacting sharply to Raghav Chadha’s announcement that he and 6 other Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MPs will merge with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Friday branded them as “traitors” and said the people of Punjab must “remember” these 7 names.
In a strongly worded remark, Singh, an AAP MP in the Rajya Sabha, said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party made Chadha an MLA and an MP, but he ended up in the lap of the BJP.
Singh accused the BJP of obstructing the “good work” of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
“The BJP has obstructed the good works done by the Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government…7 AAP Rajya Sabha MPs are joining the BJP, the people of Punjab should remember these 7 names. The people of Punjab will never forget them,” he said at a press conference.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP has once again “betrayed” the Punjabis.
Chadha said today at a press conference that two-thirds of all AAP Rajya Sabha MPs would quit the party. Apart from Chadha, Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahni will also join the BJP.
Chadha, a popular youth face who represented the party in television debates, had stirred social media speculation with his perceived silence on the arrest of several AAP leaders in corruption cases in 2024.
Last month, he was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and replaced by Ashok Malik.
Chadha today said that he had distanced himself from the party because he didn’t want to take part in “their sins”.
“I am telling you the real reason as to why I distanced myself from party activities — I did not want to be a part of their sins. I was not eligible for their friendship because I was not a part of their crimes. We had just two options – either quit politics or give up our public work. We have decided that we, the 2/3rd members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP,” he said.
The two-thirds number saves the MPs from being ousted from the Upper House of Parliament under the anti-defection law.