RS releases fresh list of party positions: BJP’s number rises to 113

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha released a fresh list of party positions on Monday after seven members defected from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and announced their merger with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This change increased the BJP’s representation in the House from 107 to 113 members, while that of AAP has decreased to three.

The defectors — Raghav Chadha, Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta, and Vikram Sahni — revealed their decision to leave AAP last week and join the BJP.

This move further strengthened the BJP’s presence in the Upper House of Parliament. Now, only three members of AAP — Sanjay Singh, Narain Dass Gupta and Sant Balbir Singh — represent the party in the Rajya Sabha.

The group that defected represented a two-thirds majority of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members.

According to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985, members cannot defect; however, there is an exception for “mergers.”

If two-thirds of a party’s elected members agree to merge with another party, they are not disqualified, nor are the members who choose to remain in the original party. Chadha and the six others cited this rule to validate their merger.

Earlier in the day, Chadha took to social media to explain the reasons behind his exit from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), alleging that the party had turned “toxic”, while asserting that his decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would help him implement the causes he supports more effectively.

Chadha shared a video message on Instagram, a platform popular among Gen Z users, where he reportedly lost around two million followers amid what is being viewed as an online backlash from the youth.

In the video, Chadha expressed gratitude to those extending their support and said he wanted to address questions regarding his decision to leave the party.

“Some of you wish to know the reasons behind this decision of mine. Before joining politics, I was a practising Chartered Accountant. However, I left my career to join politics and became a founding member of a party. This is a party to which I dedicated 15 years — the prime of my youth; a party I nurtured with my own blood, sweat, and immense hard work,” he said.

However, he stated that the party has changed significantly over time. “However, he said that today, this party is no longer the party it once was, adding that it now suffers from a toxic work environment.”

“You are prevented from doing your work; you are stopped from speaking in Parliament; and today, this political party has fallen into the clutches of a select few individuals who are both corrupt and compromised. These are people who no longer work for the nation, but rather for their own personal gain,” Chadha added.

Reflecting on his internal dilemma over the past few years, he said he increasingly felt he might be “the right man in the wrong party”.

“Consequently, I was left with only three options. The first option was to quit politics entirely; the second was to remain in this party and attempt to set things right — something that, as it turned out, was not possible. And the third option was to channel my energy and experience into practising positive politics — to join a different platform, to align myself with another political party, and to engage in constructive political work.”

“Therefore, and I did not do this alone; it was not just one, two, three, four, five, or even six other MPs, but a total of seven MPs who collectively took the decision to sever our ties with this political party,” he said.

Chadha further defended the collective decision taken by the group, questioning criticism of their move.

IANS