 Summary of this article
- Seven former AAP MPs, including Raghav Chadha and Swati Maliwal, are now officially part of the BJP.
- The BJP now holds 113 seats in the Rajya Sabha, while AAP has been reduced to three members.
- AAP has challenged the move, calling it unconstitutional and seeking disqualification of the MPs.
Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan has approved the merger of seven former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs with the BJP, following their decision to leave the party last week. With this development, the BJP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has risen to 113 members.
The seven MPs are Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal and Rajinder Gupta.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the Chairman’s decision on X, welcoming the MPs into the NDA. He wrote that they had joined the alliance under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and criticised the opposition INDIA bloc.
The Rajya Sabha website has since updated its records, listing all seven MPs as members of the BJP Parliamentary Party. As a result, the AAP’s presence in the Upper House has been reduced to three members. |
