New Delhi: In a big setback for the Aam Aadmi Party, three party MPs – Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal – on Friday announced a split in the party and said that two-thirds of the party’s members in Rajya Sabha had decided to “merge with the BJP”.
“We have decided that we, the 2/3rd members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP,” Raghav Chadha said at a press conference, which was also attended by Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal.
Answering queries, Raghav Chadha said that AAP has 10 members in the Rajya Sabha and seven of them have decided to leave the party and merge with BJP.
“There are 10 AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha, more than 2/3rd of them are with us in this. They have signed and this morning we submitted the signed letter and documents to the Rajya Sabha Chairman…three of them are here before you. Besides us, there are Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Swati Maliwal.”
Chadha said that the decision stems from AAP “moving away from its core ideology” and alleged that it is now working for personal benefits.