Overview
- Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal quit AAP and joined the BJP after a Friday press conference in Delhi, where Chadha said seven of AAP’s ten Rajya Sabha MPs would merge with the BJP and confirmed a letter to the House chair.
- The trio was received at BJP headquarters by party leaders, including president Nitin Nabin, in what BJP sources presented as a planned consolidation.
- Chadha and supportive reports said the National Democratic Alliance would rise to about 148 seats from 141 in the Upper House, moving closer to a two‑thirds threshold for some constitutional votes.
- Several names Chadha cited for the merger, including Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahni, were reported as backing the move, yet independent confirmation and formal Rajya Sabha notifications are still pending.
- AAP said it will pursue anti‑defection action through its chief whip N.D. Gupta, while analysts cast the defections as a BJP push to weaken AAP before Punjab assembly elections and, if recognized, to cut AAP’s Rajya Sabha bench to three.