Bhagwant Mann seeks President's intervention as 7 AAP MPs join BJP

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has sought time to meet President Droupadi Murmu and plans to visit her along with Punjab MLAs to present his stance on the recall of seven Rajya Sabha members who have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Mann is expected to raise the issue of the MPs’ defection and argue for their recall during the meeting. The development comes after seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha members — Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney — announced they were quitting the AAP and joining the BJP as a group.

While Chadha’s move was on expected lines after he was removed as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, the exit of six other MPs along with him triggered a political storm. With seven out of 10 MPs leaving together, none of them are expected to face anti-defection provisions under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, as they constitute two-thirds of AAP’s total strength in the Rajya Sabha.

Following their exit on Friday, Mann dubbed them “gaddars” (traitors) and alleged that the BJP was trying to break the AAP and had “betrayed the people of Punjab.”

“When they did not find anything against me, they tried to break AAP,” Mann said, adding that the BJP held a grudge against Punjab after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to withdraw the now-repealed farm laws.

AKALI DAL SLAMS MANN

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday hit back at Mann over his move to meet the President, calling it “political theatre” with no constitutional basis.

Senior Akali leader Daljit Cheema said that under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, action against defecting MPs falls within Parliament’s domain and not the President’s discretion. He added that the anti-defection law permits a merger if more than two-thirds of a party’s members join another party — a threshold met by the seven defecting AAP MPs.

The party also accused Mann of double standards, noting that his government had accepted the defection of one out of three SAD MLAs into the AAP and later appointed him chairman of a public sector undertaking.

The SAD further questioned AAP’s selection of Rajya Sabha nominees, asking what criteria were used to nominate “ultra-wealthy outsiders” instead of representatives of Punjab’s common people.

CHADHA, OTHERS QUIT AAP, JOIN BJP

At a press briefing in Delhi on Friday, Chadha — once seen as a close aide of Arvind Kejriwal — alleged that he had been sidelined within the party and described himself as the “right man in the wrong party.” He said he, along with Pathak and Mittal, would join the BJP. Mittal had earlier replaced Chadha as the deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.

Later, Chadha, Pathak and Mittal formally joined the BJP in the presence of party chief Nitin Nabin.

Justifying his decision, Chadha said the Kejriwal-led party had deviated from its core principles. “The AAP, which I nurtured with my blood and sweat and gave 15 years of my youth to, has deviated from its principles, values and core morals. For the past few years, I felt I was the right man in the wrong party,” he said.

He also praised Prime Minister Modi, saying the NDA government had taken bold decisions, including tackling terrorism and strengthening India’s global standing.

The split has left the AAP with just three MPs in the Rajya Sabha and comes less than a year before Punjab heads to the polls.