Chandigarh, April 25: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has requested a meeting with the President of India to contest the defection of seven Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha members to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Chief Minister stated that he intends to present facts regarding the move and seek the recall of the lawmakers from the Upper House.
The group of defecting MPs includes Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, and Vikramjit Singh Sahney from Punjab, alongside Swati Maliwal from Delhi. Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office affirmed that Mann intends to represent the party’s MLAs, who serve as the electorate for Rajya Sabha representatives.
“The BJP’s lack of political ground has pushed it towards such tactics,” Mann asserted, questioning the moral authority of the departing members. The party has maintained that the switch constitutes a betrayal of the voters who elected the AAP to power in Punjab.
Legal experts noted that the anti-defection law may not apply in this instance, as the seven members represent more than two-thirds of the party’s 10-member unit in the Rajya Sabha. Constitutional provisions typically protect such a majority from disqualification when they choose to merge with another political entity.
Despite this, the AAP leadership declared its intention to use all available constitutional means to challenge the merger. Sanjay Singh affirmed that the party will submit a formal request to the Rajya Sabha Chairman seeking the disqualification of the members on the grounds of voluntarily giving up their original party membership.
