AAP submits petition to Rajya Sabha chairman seeking termination of 7 MPs who quit party

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh on Sunday submitted a petition to Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan seeking the disqualification of seven party MPs in the Upper House who recently quit the AAP and announced their merger with the BJP.

Addressing a press conference, Singh claimed the move by the seven Rajya Sabha MPs amounted to defection as it was against the provisions of the anti-defection law.

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The AAP has urged the Rajya Sabha chairman to terminate the memberships of the seven MPs, claiming that they were elected to the Upper House on an AAP ticket but later decided to leave the party and join the BJP.

On Friday, the AAP suffered a jolt when Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni and Swati Maliwal quit and merged with the BJP, alleging that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.

"According to the Constitution, two-thirds of the total MPs of a party can merge with another party," Chadha said, pointing to the fact that AAP had a total of 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha.

Singh on Sunday alleged that such defections were a betrayal of the people's mandate, particularly in Punjab, and also against the spirit of the Constitution.

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Incidentally, six of the seven MPs who quit the party were Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab.

According to Singh, the AAP consulted Constitution experts, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal and a former Lok Sabha secretary general, on the matter, and it had been made clear that "the MPs were liable for disqualification under the law".

"These members were elected by the AAP and later chose to leave and join another party. This is a betrayal of the people of Punjab and also of the Constitution of India," Singh said.