Felt disappointed, disgusted: Raghav Chadha on AAP exit, says party fell into ‘corrupt hands’

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha said on Saturday that he and six other Members of Parliament chose to leave the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as the party had fallen into “corrupt and compromised hands”, leaving them “disappointed, disenchanted and disgusted”.

Chadha triggered a major political development on Friday by announcing his resignation from AAP along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs — Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahni — all of whom are set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He said that this group, representing a two-thirds faction of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs, will formally merge with the BJP in the coming days.

Speaking to the reporters, Chadha said, “Every true patriot, every individual who nurtured the Aam Aadmi Party with their very blood and sweat, and who had joined the party with immense hope, has either already left the AAP or is in the process of leaving it. This is because every honest and hardworking person now feels that there is nothing left in this party. The AAP is now going down the wrong path, where no one wishes to maintain any association with it. Hence, one by one, numerous leaders have left the Aam Aadmi Party.”

He also added that the Constitution empowers elected MPs to take such decisions if they believe their party has deviated from its principles.

“If they (elected MPs) feel that their party has fallen into corrupt and compromised hands, or that the party is heading down the wrong path, then they have the right to leave their party, provided a sufficient number of MPs wish to do so. To facilitate this, a threshold requiring the support of two-thirds or more of the elected members was established,” he said.

Referring to the scale of the exit of large number of lawmakers from AAP, Chadha added, “It is not just 2-3, but seven MPs who are collectively leaving the Aam Aadmi Party.”

“They are doing so because they believe that the Aam Aadmi Party has indeed fallen into corrupt and compromised hands. And to those who claim, specifically the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, that we left out of fear, let us be clear: we did not leave the Aam Aadmi Party out of fear; we left because we felt disappointed, disenchanted and disgusted,” he said.

Chadha also raised the long-standing “Sheesh Mahal” controversy, calling it a decisive factor behind the party’s defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.

“And another significant issue is the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ controversy currently unfolding in Delhi. Indeed, if there was one single overriding reason for the defeat in the Delhi elections, the primary cause behind the Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral loss, it was precisely that ‘Sheesh Mahal’ episode,” he said.

The development comes amid a sharp political attack by the BJP on Arvind Kejriwal, following the exit of the seven MPs from AAP.

The BJP described Kejriwal as the “Rahman Dakait of Delhi” and released fresh images of what it termed “Sheesh Mahal 2”.

Reacting to this, Chadha said, “Yet, even today, less than a year after the conclusion of the Delhi elections, the pictures of ‘Sheesh Mahal 2’ have emerged. The Aam Aadmi Party should engage in deep introspection regarding all these issues.”

“One wonders how the dedicated party workers, who remain with the Aam Aadmi Party, will manage to answer the people when they are inevitably confronted with questions regarding the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ controversy. The Aam Aadmi Party should engage in self-reflection regarding this and give it careful consideration,” he added.

IANS