AAP to move Rajya Sabha chair, President against Raghav Chadha-led rebel MPs who joined BJP

THe Aam Aadmi company (AAP) plans to near Rajya Sabha chairman, vice chairperson CP sir sarvepalli radhakrishnan, and chairperson Droupadi Murmu separately, seeking action against seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs who quit the party on Friday, AAP leaders and people aware of the matter said on Saturday.The moves mark a coordinated attempt by the AAP leadership to blunt the jolt from the sudden departures by some of its key leaders less than a year before assembly elections in Punjab.Senior AAP leader and RS MP Sanjay Singh said he will write to Radhakrishnan to seek the disqualification of the seven rebel lawmakers from the Upper House. “This is illegal, wrong, unconstitutional, and against parliamentary rules… I will write to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the honourable vice president… requesting that the membership of all seven of these Rajya Sabha MPs be terminated completely,” Singh said at a press conference in Delhi.Also read: Gaddar, baahri, catwalk: 3 words echo in Punjab after AAP's Raghav rupture, with many meanings at onceEven as it plans to pursue action within Parliament, the party is looking to escalate the matter at the constitutional level. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has also sought an appointment with the President to formally demand the “recall” of the six defectors elected from the state, people aware of the matter said.To be sure, the Constitution does not have any such provision. In February, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha — who emerged as the face of Friday’s rebellion — pitched a “Right to Recall” mechanism to allow voters to remove non-performing elected representatives before the end of their term. Ashok Aggarwal, former advocate general of Punjab, said: “Recall is not a provision available in the Constitution under any schedule at all. There is no question of recall.”Also read: Is Trump playing the markets via US-Iran war? 'He has it in a chokehold'Chadha on Friday announced that seven of AAP’s 10 MPs in the Upper House were quitting the party and joining the BJP, plunging the AAP into turmoil a year after it lost power in Delhi and raising existential questions about the functioning of the party and its chief, Arvind Kejriwal. The group of rebel leaders includes Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney, Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal. Chadha, Mittal and Pathak joined the BJP on Friday. Maliwal on Saturday announced that she has joined the BJP after “due consideration”.At Friday’s bombshell press conference, Chadha said the group constituted 2/3rds of the AAP’s Rajya Sabha strength and would merge with the BJP. Singh, however, said the numbers offered no protection under the anti-defection law. “Whether it is seven members or more, such defections have no legal standing,” he said.Independent Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the merger was unconstitutional unless the party itself first decided to merge. “Anyone cannot simply merge on their own. The Constitution says that first the political party must take a decision at the organisational level, pass a resolution deciding that as a political party they want to merge with the BJP, and only then can it be done,” news agency PTI quoted him as saying.Former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary told HT on Friday that the seven MPs were “not immune from disqualification”.In the immediate aftermath of the exodus, Mann accused the BJP of attempting to break the AAP ahead of elections in Punjab. The Punjab chief minister is expected to meet the President “with a delegation of AAP MLAs” from the northern state to formally present the party’s stand against the defectors, people aware of the plan said.Responding to questions on if the AAP leadership had anticipated the rebellion, Singh alleged that the moves became apparent after the Enforcement Directorate raid on premises linked to Mittal earlier in the month. “After the ED raids on Ashok Mittal’s residence, things became quite visible. The BJP itself was calling him a thief, but now he is clean. The BJP’s washing machine is at work,” he said. Singh said that there was no threat of defections among AAP legislators in Punjab.Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that central agencies were being used to pressure opposition leaders and weaken the party from within. “Attempts are being made to break the morale of karyakartas [workers], but we will not stop asking questions,” he said, urging workers to remain steadfast during what he described as a “difficult phase”.The BJP dismissed AAP’s allegations, with Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva saying the party’s leaders were reacting out of frustration over Friday’s developments. Sachdeva alleged that since Friday, Kejriwal had deployed senior leaders to intimidate the defecting MPs with what he called hollow threats. “However, he has forgotten that all seven MPs are reputed and well-educated individuals who had been feeling suffocated in the AAP for a long time… Ultimately, they chose to follow their conscience and parted ways with AAP,” he said.(With inputs from bureau in Chandigarh)