Amid questions over his decision to quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Monday said the party had turned into a “toxic work environment”, asserting that “one or two persons can be wrong, but not all seven”.
In a video message shared on social media, Chadha, who, along with six other MPs, has merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said he had been receiving messages over the past few days, with many congratulating him while others sought an explanation for his decision.
Chadha said he had left a successful career as a practising chartered accountant to enter politics and was a founding member of AAP, dedicating 15 years of his “prime youth” to building the party. “I didn't come into politics to make my career,” he said, adding that he had worked for the party with his “blood, sweat and tears.”
However, he alleged that the party was no longer the same and had become a “toxic work environment”, where leaders were prevented from working and speaking in Parliament. “Today, this political party is trapped in the hands of some corrupt and compromised people. They don't work for the country but for their own personal gain,” Chadha alleged.
There was no immediate response from AAP to the allegations.
The MP said that over the past few years, he increasingly felt he was “the right man in the wrong party” and was left with three choices, to quit politics, stay back and try to fix things, or move to another platform to continue “positive politics”. “That’s why I, not alone, but along with six other MPs, decided to break the relationship with this political party,” he said.
Drawing a parallel with a toxic workplace, Chadha said that when people are stopped from working, their efforts suppressed and their voices silenced, the right decision is to leave such an environment.
He added that he would continue to raise issues of ordinary citizens with greater energy and hoped to find and implement solutions more effectively on his new political platform.
Chadha, along with Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney, had on April 24 announced their decision to join the BJP. At a press conference, he said that two-thirds of a party’s MPs can merge with another party, citing constitutional provisions.
On Monday, the Rajya Sabha Chairman C. P. Radhakrishnan approved the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP, taking the party’s strength in the Upper House to 113. The Aam Aadmi Party is now left with three members in the Rajya Sabha.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party has launched a fierce political counter-attack, filing a formal petition before the Rajya Sabha Chairman seeking the immediate disqualification of all seven defectors. Senior leader Sanjay Singh described the merger as a "constitutional fraud" and a "betrayal of the mandate of Punjab," alleging that the BJP utilized central agencies to coerce the MPs.