Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and MP Sanjay Singh on Sunday formally submitted a petition to Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan, seeking the disqualification of seven party MPs who recently defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Singh addressed a press conference where he claimed that the exit of these members constitutes a clear violation of the anti-defection law.
The move comes after the AAP suffered a major political blow on Friday when MPs Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni, and Swati Maliwal announced their resignation from the party and their subsequent merger with the BJP. The defecting members alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its founding principles and core values.
Raghav Chadha defended the merger by citing constitutional provisions that allow two-thirds of a party's legislative unit to merge with another organization without facing disqualification. Since the AAP holds a total of 10 seats in the Rajya Sabha, the group of seven exceeds the required two-thirds threshold. However, Singh countered this by stating that the party has consulted constitutional experts, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal and a former Lok Sabha secretary general, who believe the MPs remain liable for disqualification under the law.
Singh further alleged that the defections represent a betrayal of the people's mandate, particularly in Punjab, as six of the seven departing members represent that state in the Upper House. He emphasized that these members were elected specifically on an AAP ticket and that moving to the BJP is an act against the spirit of the Constitution. The AAP has now officially urged the Rajya Sabha Chairman to terminate their memberships to uphold democratic norms.
