Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal join BJP after quitting AAP

Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, who announced their resignations from AAP, joined the BJP in the presence of party chief Nitin Nabin in Delhi on Friday. The remaining four MPs – former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahney will join the BJP later.

Chadha, Mittal and Pathak, received bouquets from Nabin and greeted other BJP leaders present at the party office.

Earlier today, Chadha, 37, said he quit AAP, a party that was formed on an anti-corruption plank in 2012, along with six other AAP MPs, and said they will merge with the BJP. The move came weeks after Chadha was removed as the Deputy Leader of AAP in the Rajya Sabha and was replaced by Mittal in the Upper House. Subsequently, Mittal also joined the BJP along with Chadha and Pathak.

"As per the Constitution, two-thirds of the total MPs of a party can merge with another party. We have submitted a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan in this regard today, along with all the required documents," Chadha, who became the youngest MP of the country in 2022, told reporters.

With seven of the AAP’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs switching to the BJP, only three – Sanjay Singh, Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal and ND Gupta – remain in the Upper House. Since the number of defecting MPs crosses the two-thirds mark, the anti-defection law is unlikely to apply.

RAGHAV CHADHA ATTACKS AAP

Launching a sharp attack on AAP, Raghav Chadha alleged the party had drifted from its founding ideals. “Over the past few years, I have increasingly felt that I am the right person in the wrong party. Today, I announce my decision to move away from AAP and work more closely with the ‘janata’ (people),” he said.

On the other hand, Pathak said the split was not something he had anticipated. “For 10 years, I remained associated with this party. And today, I am parting ways with the AAP,” he said.

Chadha, who joined AAP at its inception in 2012, rose to become a close aide of Kejriwal and played a key role in the party’s 2022 Punjab Assembly election victory. However, relations with the leadership deteriorated over the past year.

Senior AAP leaders accused Chadha of softening the party’s stance in Parliament by avoiding direct attacks on the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They cited his refusal to sign a notice seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his absence from Opposition walkouts. He was also left out of AAP’s star campaigner list for Assembly polls in Kerala, Assam, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Chadha drew criticism from AAP for remaining silent following Kejriwal’s arrest in the liquor policy case in 2024 and for not reacting publicly even after Kejriwal secured bail, because he was abroad.

AAP HITS BACK AT CHADHA

Responding to the development, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh accused the BJP of engineering defections through “Operation Lotus”, a term often used to describe alleged efforts to induce opposition lawmakers to switch sides.

“Our party did so many things for these seven MPs. The people of Punjab sent them to the Rajya Sabha, yet they ended up in the lap of the BJP. People of Punjab will not forgive these traitors,” Singh said.

He further alleged that the BJP was using state machinery and investigative agencies to destabilise the government led by Bhagwant Mann in Punjab, AAP’s only remaining state government after its Delhi poll debacle. Punjab is due to go to elections in early 2027.

Kejriwal, in a short tweet, claimed that the BJP once again "betrayed" Punjabis ahead of the 2027 polls.