25 April,2026 08:02 PM IST | Baranagar | mid-day online correspondent
AAP faces major setback as MPs join BJP. PIC/PTI
In a major political development, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and six other MPs have resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and are set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The move has created a strong political reaction across parties.
Reacting to the development, BJP President Nitin Nabin said the shift shows increasing public trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He also claimed that dissatisfaction within AAP has grown due to corruption allegations against its leadership, which, according to him, is pushing leaders to leave the party. "When Arvind Kejriwal is being widely associated with corruption, it creates significant dissatisfaction within the AAP. As a result, some MPs have chosen to leave. This indicates that across the country, people's trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi is increasing," he said, reported IANS.
Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar said AAP has moved away from its founding values of clean politics and reform. He alleged that the party has now become similar to the Congress in terms of corruption and political behaviour.
Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari also said the political shift shows changing public sentiment and growing awareness among voters, reported the news agency.
Raghav Chadha, along with several MPs including Sandeep Pathak, Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahni, announced their exit from AAP. "The Aam Aadmi Party was founded on promises of integrity and political reform. I was associated with its early days around 2009-2010. However, it has turned out to be the opposite. It is now competing with the Congress Party in corruption and positioning itself as a 'B team' of Congress," he said.
Chadha said a two-thirds majority of AAP's Rajya Sabha MPs has decided to merge with the BJP. The group plans to formalise the merger in the coming days under constitutional provisions. "The Opposition has little to say. The way several Rajya Sabha MPs from AAP have left and joined the BJP shows the changing political situation. Whether public representatives or ordinary citizens, everyone is watching these developments closely," reported the news agency.
According to reports, the MPs' move may be protected under the anti-defection law, as a two-thirds majority allows a group to merge with another party without facing disqualification. The law treats it as a merger and not defection, which is why they may avoid disqualification.
India's anti-defection law is meant to stop elected MPs and MLAs from switching parties too easily after winning an election. If an individual lawmaker switches parties, they can usually be disqualified from Parliament or the Assembly.
However, there is an important exception built into the law that if at least two-thirds of the elected members of a party's legislature group agree to leave together and merge with another party, it is not treated as defection, which applies in this case.
The development is being seen as a significant setback for AAP. It comes shortly after Chadha was reportedly removed from the post of Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha for not actively opposing the Union government in Parliament.
(With IANS Inputs)
