Seven AAP MPs quit party, to join BJP
AAP is in power in Punjab at present and was voted out of power by BJP in Delhi in the assembly elections held last year.
India's leading opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today (24 April) suffered a major jolt when seven of its lawmakers of the Rajya Sabha, upper house of Indian parliament, quit the party and announced their decision to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a press conference, the MPs, including Raghav Chadha, said two-thirds of the Aam Aadmi Party's Rajya Sabha MPs have quit the party and will join BJP as a faction.
In the Rajya Sabha, Aam Aadmi Party has 10 MPs.
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Shortly after the resignation of the seven MPs, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the party termed them as "traitors" and accused BJP of trying to break AAP ahead of assembly elections in Punjab due next year.
AAP is in power in Punjab at present and was voted out of power by BJP in Delhi in the assembly elections held last year.
Chadha, who recently fell out with AAP top leadership, said party MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are also quitting AAP.
"AAP, that I nurtured with my blood and sweat and to which I gave 15 years of my youth, has completely strayed from its principles, values and core morals," said Chadha who was recently removed as the deputy leader of AAP in the Rajya Sabha and was replaced by Sandeep Mittal in the upper house.
Chadha had joined AAP in 2011-12 when the party was formed on an anti-corruption plank led by social activist Anna Hazare. He alleged AAP is no longer working for the country but for its own benefit.
"Over the past few years, I have increasingly felt that I am the right person in the wrong party. Today, I announce my decision to move away from AAP and work more closely with the 'janata' [public]," he said.
Another AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Sandeep Pathak, said he had never thought that this situation would arise, but it has.
"For 10 years, I remained associated with this party. And today, I am parting ways with the Aam Aadmi Party," Pathak said.
The MPs who quit AAP include Ashok Mittal, whose business premises were raided by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Punjab on 15 April as part of a probe into a case relating to alleged violation of foreign exchange management law.
This is not the first time that AAP has been hit by desertions by its leading faces. In the past, Ashutosh, a former TV journalist, Alka Lamba, a former Congress leader from Delhi who joined AAP, Swati Maliwal, Kapil Mishra, Yogendra Yadav, Kumar Vishwas and eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan either left the party or were expelled.
