Three Rajya Sabha members from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)—Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, and Sandeep Pathak—officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi on Friday. The event occurred in the presence of BJP president Nitin Nabin, who welcomed them at the party headquarters.
The other four AAP Rajya Sabha members who resigned—former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta, and Vikram Sahney—are expected to join the BJP soon.
Chadha, Mittal, and Pathak were presented with bouquets by Nabin and interacted with other BJP officials at the venue.
Earlier that day, 37-year-old Chadha announced his departure from AAP, which was established in 2012 with a focus on combating corruption. He stated that he and six other AAP members would integrate into the BJP. This development followed Chadha’s removal as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, where Mittal briefly took his place before also defecting.
Chadha explained that, according to constitutional provisions, two-thirds of a party’s MPs can merge with another party. He confirmed that they had submitted the necessary letter and documents to Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan.
Chadha, who entered Parliament as the youngest MP in 2022, noted that with seven out of AAP’s ten Rajya Sabha members defecting, only three remain: Sanjay Singh, Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal, and ND Gupta. The defection exceeds the two-thirds threshold, making anti-defection laws inapplicable.
In his remarks, Chadha criticized AAP for straying from its original principles. He expressed feeling mismatched with the party and chose to align more directly with public interests.
Pathak, reflecting on his decade-long association with AAP, described the separation as unexpected.
Chadha, an early AAP member since 2012, had been a key advisor to leader Arvind Kejriwal and contributed significantly to the party’s success in the 2022 Punjab elections. However, tensions with the leadership grew over the past year.
AAP insiders claimed Chadha moderated the party’s parliamentary approach, avoiding confrontations with the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Examples included his refusal to endorse a motion against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his non-participation in opposition protests. He was also excluded from AAP’s prominent campaigners for elections in several states.
Chadha faced backlash within AAP for not commenting on Kejriwal’s 2024 arrest related to a liquor policy matter and for staying silent after Kejriwal’s release, as he was overseas at the time.
In response, AAP leader Sanjay Singh accused the BJP of orchestrating the defections via ‘Operation Lotus,’ a phrase denoting alleged inducements for opposition switches.
Singh highlighted AAP’s support for these MPs, elected by Punjab voters, and predicted public backlash against the defectors.
He further claimed the BJP was employing government resources and agencies to undermine Punjab’s AAP-led administration under Bhagwant Mann, especially with elections scheduled for early 2027. This follows AAP’s recent electoral setbacks in Delhi.
Kejriwal, via a brief social media post, accused the BJP of deceiving Punjab residents in advance of the 2027 elections.
