In a significant political development, Rajya Sabha Chairman C. P. Radhakrishnan on Monday officially accepted the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), dealing a major blow to Arvind Kejriwal’s party in the Upper House.
With this move, the AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has been reduced to just three members, while the BJP’s tally has risen to 113, further consolidating its position.
The seven MPs who have now merged with the BJP are Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta.
The official Rajya Sabha website has already updated its records, listing all seven MPs as members of the BJP.
Sources indicate that the MPs had submitted a petition to the Chairman on Friday, requesting to be recognised as BJP members following their merger—a request that has now been accepted.
Meanwhile, the AAP had approached the Chairman seeking termination of their memberships. AAP leader Sanjay Singh also filed a petition demanding their disqualification under anti-defection provisions.
The political shift began last week when the seven MPs resigned from the AAP and announced their merger with the BJP, alleging that the party had deviated from its founding principles, values, and core ideology.
This development marks a major setback for the AAP in the Rajya Sabha and could have broader implications for parliamentary dynamics in the coming sessions
