New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party formally approached Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan on Sunday, submitting a petition for the disqualification of seven of its Members of Parliament who recently defected to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh announced the move during a press conference in New Delhi, invoking provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India. The petition seeks the immediate termination of the memberships of Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal, and Vikramjit Sahney, following their high-profile exit and subsequent announcement of a merger with the saffron party on Friday.
Sanjay Singh stated that the party had engaged in extensive consultations with constitutional experts and legal luminaries, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal and former Lok Sabha Secretary-General P. D. T. Achary. These experts reportedly provided the opinion that the defecting members are liable for disqualification under current anti-defection laws. While the defectors, led by Raghav Chadha, have argued that their move is legally protected because they represent more than two-thirds of the party’s ten-member strength in the Upper House, AAP leadership maintains that such a split has no legal recognition when the original political party remains intact and functional. Singh urged the Chairman to hear the matter at the earliest opportunity and deliver a just decision to uphold the sanctity of the parliamentary process.
The controversy has triggered a sharp political confrontation between the AAP and the BJP, particularly as six of the seven defectors represent the state of Punjab. Singh dismissed claims of further defections among AAP legislators as false propaganda designed to create confusion within the party ranks. He alleged that the rebel leaders are facing severe public backlash across Punjab, with citizens taking to the streets to protest against what is being characterized as a betrayal of the provincial mandate. The party has vowed to pursue all available legal avenues to challenge the validity of the merger, asserting that the actions of the seven MPs constitute a direct violation
