The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will move court if seven of its former MPs are not disqualified under the anti-defection law, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said on Monday, after the Chairman of the Upper House accepted their merger with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Reacting to the decision, Singh said the seven MPs had submitted a letter seeking recognition of their merger with the BJP, which was accepted by the Chair.
He alleged that the objections raised by the AAP, including its demand for their disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, had not been considered.
"It has been brought to my notice that the party position of the AAP as reflected in the official records, documents, and publications of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has been altered unilaterally, without any prior intimation to, or concurrence of, the party or its Floor Leader in the House," Singh wrote in his letter to the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha.
"The Chairman has taken cognisance of the letter submitted by those seven MPs and based on that, accepted their merger.
The objection raised by us and the disqualification we sought under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution have not even been considered," Singh said.
He said the party was hopeful that once its letter is examined, the Chairman would act in favour of the Constitution and democracy by disqualifying the seven members.
"If that does not happen, we will approach the court. It is wrong to break a party in this manner," he said.
On Friday, seven of AAP’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney, and Swati Maliwal, quit the party and merged with the BJP, alleging a deviation from its core principles.
With this development, the strength of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party in the Rajya Sabha has fallen to three from 10, while the BJP’s tally has risen to 113 in the 245-member House, after the Secretariat included the seven MPs in the list of BJP members.
The seven MPs, six of them from Punjab, had on Friday petitioned the Chairman of the Upper House to be recognised as BJP members following their merger.
“Hon’ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan, has accepted the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on X, adding that they are now members of the BJP Parliamentary Party.