The Great AAP Exodus: From Founding Ideals to ‘Operation Lotus’
The Business of Defection
The shift in power dynamics with six Punjab MPs and one Delhi MP crossing the floor.
The Vice President of India and Rajya Sabha chairman Radhakrishnan has admitted the seven Rajya Sabha members of Aam Admi Party into the BJP on Monday. He did not consider the request of the AAP leadership to annul their membership in view of unprincipled defection to the ruling party. The revolt in the AAP Rajya Sabha party was initiated by Raghav Chadha who was removed from the post of deputy leader of AAP in Rajya Sabha unceremoniously recently.
The Raghav Chadha Rebellion
Raghav Chadha had submitted a private member bill in the Rajya Sabha three years ago suggesting that if a party has to merge with another party a three-fourth majority will be needed and not two-third as it is applicable now. That bill was not passed. Had it been passed, Chadha would not have been able to cross the floor today with two-thirds majority. Chadha had been a critic of the BJP for encouraging defections throughout the country. In the changed circumstances, Chadha himself had to resort to split the party for which he gave his blood and sweat for fifteen years, convince six other colleagues and join the very BJP of which he was extremely critical some time ago.
Raghav Chadha shared a video in Instagram in which he explained the reason for his decision. “For the past three days, I have received lots of congratulatory messages from you, whereas some people (critics) are curious about my reasons for quitting the AAP and joining the BJP. I did not join politics to make my career. I have devoted 15 years of my youth to AAP and have become a founding member of a political party,” he said in his video. “Today the party is no longer the same as the one I joined years ago. The party has a toxic work environment and you are stopped from working and speaking in the Parliament,” Chadha explained.
Describing himself as the ‘Right person in the wrong party,’ Raghav Chadha said he had three options before him. He could have worked for reforms in AAP and stayed back. He could have quit politics altogether. He could have joined some other party. After considering at length, he had decided to join the BJP. He said, “He did not leave out of fear, but disappointment, disenchantment and disgust.”
AAP leader Sanjay Singh commented that the people of Punjab would not forgive the seven members of Rajya Sabha for deserting the party and joining the BJP. Of the seven members, Swati Maliwal is regular in attending the Parliament while the cricketer Harbhajan Singh is most irregular. Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Vikram Sahaney and Rajinder Gupta were the other members who left the AAP and joined the BJP. Punjab is going to have Assembly elections next year. Sanjay attacked the BJP saying that the ruling party was conducting ‘Operation Lotus’ under the leadership of Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This operation is being executed on the Punjab Government. ED and CBI are being used to execute this Operation Lotus. The people of Punjab will never forget these traitors,” said Sanjay Singh. Top leader of the AAP and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal commented that the BJP has given another shove to Punjab.
A Defeat for the Mandate?
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has sought a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to press for the removal of the seven members of Rajya Sabha who merged their party with the BJP. The Vice-President has decided in favour of the merger even before the President gave appointment to Punjab CM. Mann wanted to tell the President that these members were elected by AAP MLAs and each AAP MLA was elected by 2.5 lakh people in each constituency. Hence their move to the BJP is not in line with the people’s mandate. Only Swati Maliwal among the seven members was elected from Delhi while all the other six members were elected from Punjab.
Raghav Chadha, the key figure in the defection drama, was once very close to Arvind Kejriwal. Born on 11 November 1988 in Central Delhi, Chadha is a charted accountant who worked for firms like Deloitte and Grant Thomto before joining politics. His claim that he left a lucrative job to enter a political party is right. Kejriwal encouraged Raghav Chadha in drafting the Delhi Lokpal Bil in 2012 which was Chadha’s first political assignment. He became the TV face of the party and became the youngest spokesman of AAP. After AAP won the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015, Chadha was appointed AAP’s national treasure at the age of 26. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections he contested from South Delhi constituency and lost to BJP’s Bidhuri. Later he helped AAP to win Punjab elections. In February 2020, he won from Rajender Nagar constituency and won over the BJP rival with a massive majority. He was appointed as vice-president of Delhi Jal Board. In 2022 he was elected to Rajya Sabha from Punjab. He married an actress Parineeti Chopra in 2023. They had a child, a boy, in October 2025.
A look at Chadha’s journey from AAP
Raghav Chadha is a sophisticated and highly expressive person. The only problem with him is that he talks too much. That is putting him to embarrassment. The channels are now showing what Chadha said about the BJP all along. While in AAP, he spoke against the BJP accusing it of goondaism and corruption. He recently said no one has born on the face of the earth so far who can buy Raghav Chadha from AAP. He also said that the BJP first organises raids by ED, CBI and then admits the accused into it and forgets about the corruption charges. He also faced problems from the BJP regime. Most of the six Rajya Sabha MPs who joined the BJP with him have faced ED and CBI raids. They come under the category of leaders who joined the BJP due to corruption charges. According to eminent journalist Shekhar Gupta, the chief editor of The Print, the businessmen who pay money to parties like AAP or TDP to join them make mistakes in the process of making money. The BJP organizes raids on them by ED and CBI and forces them to join it. After joining the BJP, there will be no investigations and they can continue to make more money.
The Chairman’s Verdict
Kapil Sibbal, an independent member of Rajya Sabha, says the decision of the chairman of Rajya Sabha Radhakrishnan to admit the seven MPs from AAP formalising the group’s merger into the BJP is unconstitutional. He says merger first has to take place on the level of organisations. The AAP members have to meet, with two thirds attending, and decide to merge with the BJP. And only then the legislative wings of AAP have to organize two-thirds of the membership and then decide to merge with the BJP. Here, only seven out of ten RS members have decided to merge. The AAP was not split. It cannot be called a merger.
BJP’s New Strength
What would be the effect of seven RS members leaving the AAP? Will it weaken the AAP just before elections to Punjab Assembly? The effect will be marginal. In parties like AAP and TMC which are dominated by single charismatic leaders, votes are given by people for the sake of the leaders. Many leaders like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan had left the AAP. But it had no effect. Likewise, many leaders like Subhendu Adhikari had deserted TMC. Nothing happened to the party. It has been winning elections. Only change would be the strength of the BJP in RS would go up to 113.
Prominent Journalist
Dr. K. Ramachandra Murthy is a versatile journalist with a distinguished career. Dr. Murthy began his extensive career with Andhra Prabha of The Indian Express group in Bengaluru. He was editor of Udayam, Vaartha and Andhra Jyothy. Dr. Murthy founded and edited HMTV news channel and The Hans India, an English newspaper. He was also editorial director of the Telugu newspaper, Saakshi. He was awarded Ph. D for his research work in rural reporting. Dr. Murthy’s five decades in journalism showcases his influential roles across both print and electronic media. He wrote the political biography of NTR published by Harper Collins.
