In a massive jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs have quit the party and merged with the BJP on Friday. Three MPs out of them, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal visited BJP Headquarters and met BJP President Nitin Nabin. The AAP accused the BJP of running “Operation Lotus” to break and poach MPs. The current strength of BJP-led NDA is 141 in the Upper House. The remaining four MPs who have decided to join BJP are Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Vikram Sahney and Rajinder Gupta. Raghav accused AAP of having completely strayed from its core principles and values. He also praised the Modi government for its bold decisions to eradicate terrorism and propel India into the league of the world’s top economies.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal reacted fiercely on this and accused the BJP of betraying Punjab. Weeks before AAP replaced Mr. Chadha with Mr. Mittal as its Deputy Leader in the Upper House. Raghav was associated with AAP since its inception and was once considered a close confidant of Mr. Kejriwal. He was elected to Delhi Assembly in 2020 and also became the party’s youngest spokesperson. The same year, he was made the party’s co-in-charge for the 2022 State Assembly polls in Punjab. AAP nominated Chadha as a Rajya Sabha member in March 2022 after a landslide victory in Punjab. The following year, he was appointed as Deputy Leader in the House.
