BIG Blow for AAP: Raghav Chadha, 6 Other Rajya Sabha MPs Resign, Join BJP

MP Raghav Chadha announced he will quit the Aam Aadmi Party and join the BJP, claiming two-thirds of AAP's Rajya Sabha MPs are merging with the BJP. Chadha stated the AAP has deviated from its principles, a move that follows his recent removal as the party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.

Days after a public fallout with the Aam Aadmi Party over his removal as deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, MP Raghav Chadha on Friday announced he will quit the Arvind Kejriwal-led party and join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Two-thirds of the AAP's Rajya Sabha MPs have chosen to use constitutional procedures to combine with the BJP, according to Chadha, who spoke at a news conference in Delhi with Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal.

Addressing a press conference with Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, AAP MP Raghav Chadha said, “The AAP, which I nurtured with my blood and sweat and gave 15 years of my youth to, has deviated from its principles, values and core morals. Now this party does not work in the interest of the nation but for its personal benefits…For the past few years, I could feel that I am the right man in the wrong party. So, today, we announce that I am distancing myself from the AAP and getting close to public."

"We have decided that we, the two-thirds members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP," Chadha said.

Six other party leaders, including Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikram Sahney, and Rajinder Gupta, also resigned from AAP.

Raghav Chadha Removed As RS Deputy Leader

Earlier this month, the Aam Aadmi Party formally notified the Rajya Sabha Secretariat that Raghav Chadha had been removed as the party’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha. Additionally, the party asked that he not be given any opportunity to speak in the House. Currently, the AAP has ten members in the Rajya Sabha, three from Delhi and seven from Punjab.

Following Chadha's dismissal from a crucial parliamentary position—one of the biggest internal divisions in AAP leadership in recent memory—the news was made amid rising tensions inside the party.