Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, including Chadha, announce switch to BJP

Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, announce move to BJP, boosting NDA strength in Upper House ahead of crucial state elections

In a jolt to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha members announced on Friday that they were joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

 

Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak are among the seven.

 

They said they submitted a letter with their signatures to Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan.

 

The AAP leaders said as they were seven among the 10, they had the requisite two-thirds strength needed under the Constitution to merge their party with another party.

 

Of the seven, six were elected from Punjab, where Assembly elections are due next year in February-March. The AAP is in power in the state.

 

 

Reacting to the development, AAP National Convener Kejriwal said: “The BJP has once again betrayed Punjabis.”

 

The defection came on the day campaigning for Gujarat’s local-body elections ended, creating a three-cornered battle between the BJP, Congress, and AAP, ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls in the state.

 

As many as 9,992 local representatives are in the fray for the elections to 15 municipal corporations, 84 municipalities, 34 district panchayats, and 260 taluka panchayats — on April 26.

 

The setback to the AAP also comes ahead of an electorally crucial year. Apart from the elections in Punjab, the only state it rules after having lost Delhi to the BJP last year, the AAP is also keen to wrest back the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which is due for polls at the end of 2027, as also put up a stronger challenge in Gujarat, where Assembly elections are due in November-December 2027. 

Once the seven MPs join the BJP’s ranks in the Rajya Sabha, its strength will increase to 113 in the 245-member House.

 

The strength of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) increases to 141, which is comfortably above the halfway mark of 123.

 

The BJP’s numbers include five of the 12 nominated members who joined the party within months of taking oath.

 

The NDA, which is led by the BJP, could also rely on the support of the remaining seven nominated members for voting on pieces of key legislation, effectively taking its numbers to 148. The seven include Harivansh Narayan Singh, Meenakshi Jain, Sudha Murty, P T Usha, and V Vijayendra Prasad.

 

The NDA is only 15 short of the two-thirds majority of 163, which is required for the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bills, in the House.

 

The six AAP MPs from Punjab are Chadha, Pathak, former international cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, and Rajinder Gupta.

 

The seventh, Swati Maliwal, is from Delhi.

 

The Rajya Sabha members who remain in the AAP are Sanjay Singh, the leader of the party in the Upper House; Narain Das Gupta; and Sant Balbir Singh. Sanjay Singh and Das Gupta were elected from Delhi, and Sant Balbir Singh from Punjab.

 

“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 Rajya Sabha chairman. I along with two other MPs personally handed over the signed documents,” Chadha posted on social media.

 

Maliwal alleged that the party, under Kejriwal, had strayed from its founding principles and shielded individuals involved in misconduct.

 

BJP Information Technology Department head Amit Malviya said on X: “The Aam Aadmi Party is in complete disarray. The collapse is no longer speculation; it is unfolding in real time.”

 

Chadha addressed a press conference in which he announced the collective decision, and said all the required documents were enclosed with the letter to Radhakrishnan.

 

Pathak and Mittal, whom the AAP had recently appointed its deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, were present at the press conference.

 

Sanjay Singh accused the BJP of carrying out “Operation Lotus”, and said that the people of Punjab would not forgive the seven who quit.