Raghav Chadha, the high profile rebel Rajya Sabha member who announced his resignation from the Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that six more of his colleagues are also quitting the party and joining the BJP. Except for ‘optics’, it will not make any difference to the fortunes of neither the AAP nor the BJP in Punjab. None of these MPs carries any political weight to alter any equations on the ground.
Chadha may have pulled off a coup, certainly not of his own though, as the strings are obviously pulled from somewhere else, on the ground none of the seven MPs, including himself, has any standing. None of them can even win a ward election on their own. None of them have won except Chadha himself who was elected an MLA on AAP ticket from Rajinder Nagar assembly segment in Delhi in 2020, the only direct election ever.
At the national level, yes it will be a grave setback for the AAP. Losing seven of its 10 members in the upper house of the Parliament is not an ordinary loss. It will also bring the party's overall MP strength from 13 to six. Chadha made this announcement along with two other RS MPs from Punjab, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak. He also claimed that four more MPs have committed to resign from the AAP and join the BJP. They include Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Rajinder Gupta.
Interestingly, Ashok Mittal who announced his decision to quit the AAP and join the BJP was made deputy leader of the Rajya Sabha replacing Chadha. He was considered to be very close to party supremo Arvind Kejriwal. After Kejriwal resigned as the chief minister and he had to vacate the chief ministerial residence in Delhi, he used to stay in Mittal’s official residence allotted to him as member of the Rajya Sabha.
Mittal had faced the Enforcement Directorate raids about a week ago. He is an affluent businessman having business interests in food, automobiles and education. He is the owner of Lovely Professional University.
Sandeep Pathak’s resignation from the AAP was not surprising either. Although counted among the founding members of the AAP, he had replaced Chadha as the in charge of Punjab. Like Chadha, he was also fielded from Punjab for the RS. Given the massive, almost 3/4th majority the AAP enjoyed in the Punjab assembly, it won all the seven Rajya Sabha seats. Pathak was unceremoniously removed from Punjab and replaced by Manish Sisodia. He was given the charge of Chhattisgarh, an inconsequential state in the AAP scheme of things.
Also read: Raghav Chadha quits AAP, joins BJP
This must be learning shock for the AAP. Except for Chadha and Pathak, none of the five other members it had fielded for Rajya Sabha from Punjab had any political background or commitments. They included Harbhajan Singh, ace cricketer of yesteryears; Balbir Singh Seechewal, environmentalist, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Sanjeev Verma, both businessmen. It was difficult to comprehend as to what criteria the AAP had fixed for fielding candidates for the Rajya Sabha amidst allegations of “multiple considerations”. Sanjeev Verma later contested the by-election from Ludhiana West and won. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha and is currently holding three important portfolios of industries, power and local bodies. Last week, he also faced ED raids, while he was abroad along with Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann.
Although Sahney, Harbhajan and Rajinder Gupta were not present in the meeting, Chadha claimed that they will also be joining the BJP. Swati Maliwal had already distanced herself from the party after she was allegedly beaten up at Delhi Chief Minister’s residence.
Since six of the seven MPs quitting the AAP and joining the BJP are from Punjab, and that too when the state elections are to be held within less than a year, it has obviously generated a lot of interest. As already mentioned, none of these exits/ entries from AAP to the BJP are going to make any difference.
Otherwise also, the AAP is facing a strong anti-incumbency. For the BJP, these seven RS MPs do not bring any value addition or any political capital in Punjab. They will indeed make a good difference in the overall strength of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha.
If true, Rajinder Gupta joining the BJP will be a shock for the AAP. He was specially picked up amidst a strong buzz that Kejriwal might himself enter Rajya Sabha from Punjab after Sanjeev Arora resigned. Gupta, otherwise also, has had good and cordial relationships with all political regimes in the past, whether it was Congress or Shiromani Akali Dal, before becoming the AAP MP. If he joins the BJP, it will be a complete circle for him—Akali Dal, Congress, AAP and now BJP.
However, even though Chadha announced it, Gupta is yet to confirm if he is actually resigning from the AAP and joining the BJP.
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