The dramatic exit of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MPs who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may not have been sudden, with one of them, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, revealing that he had flagged the move to party chief Arvind Kejriwal days in advance.
Also read: Why Chadha-led exodus presents an existential crisis for AAP and Kejriwal
In an interview with NDTVSahney, 64, said he had informed the national convener about the simmering undercurrents and the implications under the anti-defection law.
The leader, a Padma awardee, told the news outlet that he told Kejriwal that the resignation of one or two MPs would not help the AAP as it would bring the two-thirds threshold, required to evade disqualification under the anti-defection law, lower.
Kejriwal didn’t expect Pathak to leave
Sahney said Kejriwal didn’t believe till then that Sandeep Pathak, another of the seven rebel MPs, would quit. He then added that when he learned that Pathak and others were also ready to exit the AAP’s ship, he also decided to do the same, thinking about Punjab’s betterment.
Also read: Why Raghav Chadha lost nearly 1 million followers in 24 hours after joining BJP
Raghav Chadha, the MP who has been in the focus the most for his decision to leave the party, of which he was once the poster boy, played a key role with Pathak to help the AAP win the 2022 elections in Punjab to form the government there, only the second state after Delhi. Now, with the next state polls less than a year away, these exits could prove to be decisive for Kejriwal’s outfit, which also lost power in Delhi last year.
What seems to have served as the final nail in the coffin is the party’s decision to remove Chadha as its deputy leader in the Upper House.
Also read: Chadha, others’ exit was a disaster waiting to happen for AAP
Apart from Sahney, Pathak and Chadha, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal, Ashok Mittal and Harbhajan Singh exited the party, significantly reducing AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha. Mittal replaced Chadha as the deputy leader. Only three AAP MPs remain now in the House.
Sahney told NDTV that a sense of disgruntlement set in after Pathak and Chadha were sidelined in the party, the former more after the defeat in the 2025 Delhi polls.
Haven’t betrayed with Punjab: Sahney
While the AAP has tried to project the seven rebels as traitors who betrayed the people of Punjab, Sahney countered that saying that was not the case. He told the news website that they met Union Home Minister Amit Shah a few days ago and spoke with him about the state’s problems.
“So, we are standing for Punjab and Punjabis. Punjab can only develop when we have the support of the Central government…The state and central governments can’t keep fighting,” he was quoted by the NDTV report as saying.
It is not the first time that the AAP has seen high-profile departures, but none dealt a blow like the latest rebellion, which has seriously reduced its parliamentary strength.
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