Aam Aadmi Party has moved into crisis-management mode after seven of its Rajya Sabha members, led by Raghav Chadha, broke ranks and aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party, creating the sharpest organisational challenge for Arvind Kejriwal’s party ahead of next year’s Punjab Assembly election.Senior leader Manish Sisodia cut short his Gujarat engagement and returned to Delhi, where he met Kejriwal to assess the fallout, contain possible further defections and reassure party legislators across Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa. The meeting came as AAP leaders began framing the defections as a betrayal of Punjab’s mandate, while the rebel MPs argued that their move met the two-thirds threshold required to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.
The seven MPs named in the switch include Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikramjit Singh Sahney. Their exit has reduced AAP’s parliamentary strength from 13 MPs to six, weakening its voice in the Rajya Sabha and raising questions about the party’s internal cohesion. The loss is politically heavier because several of the MPs were linked to Punjab, the only state where AAP currently runs a government.
AAP has initiated a legal and procedural counter-offensive. Senior leader Sanjay Singh submitted a petition to the Rajya Sabha Chairman seeking disqualification of the seven MPs, arguing that the move amounted to defection rather than a valid merger. The party is also expected to pursue political pressure through Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who has sought to cast the episode as an attempt to destabilise his government before the 2027 election.
The BJP’s immediate gain is symbolic as much as numerical. Punjab has remained a difficult terrain for the party since its break with the Shiromani Akali Dal and the farm law agitation that damaged its standing among large sections of rural voters. With six Rajya Sabha members linked to Punjab now on its side, the party has acquired recognisable faces and potential access to social, business and professional networks that may help it widen its state footprint.
AAP leaders insist the defectors lack independent electoral strength and were sent to the Upper House because the party valued their public profile, professional standing or organisational contribution. Mann has argued that none of them could win a grassroots contest on their own. That line is meant to reassure party workers that the defections will not automatically translate into Assembly-level losses.
Yet the damage is not limited to arithmetic. Chadha and Pathak were closely associated with AAP’s political messaging and candidate-management machinery. Chadha, once seen as one of Kejriwal’s most visible national faces, had been part of the party’s rise in Punjab and its parliamentary interventions. Pathak played a central role in organisational planning. Their departure may unsettle legislators who had direct links with them during ticket distribution and campaign operations.
Security arrangements have added another layer to the confrontation. Punjab Police withdrew cover for several former AAP MPs after the switch, while central security agencies stepped in for some of them. Chadha continues to have high-level protection. The security issue has become politically charged, with AAP supporters staging protests and accusing the defectors of abandoning the party at a critical moment.
The split comes after a turbulent period for AAP. Kejriwal and Sisodia spent months fighting cases linked to the Delhi excise policy matter, while the party tried to retain its anti-corruption image and national expansion plans. Its government in Punjab faces scrutiny over law and order, jobs, finances and governance delivery. Gujarat remains a growth target, but the party has struggled to convert vote share into stable organisation across many states.
The central legal issue now turns on whether the Rajya Sabha Chairman accepts the rebel group’s claim of merger or allows AAP’s disqualification plea to proceed. The anti-defection law permits protection when not less than two-thirds of members of a legislature party agree to merge, but such cases often become prolonged constitutional and procedural contests. AAP’s argument is that the move violates the mandate on which the MPs entered Parliament.
For Kejriwal, the immediate task is to prevent the rupture from spreading to Punjab MLAs. AAP holds a commanding majority in the Punjab Assembly, but pre-election anxiety can create openings for rival parties. The party’s leadership is expected to intensify direct contact with legislators, district units and local volunteers while projecting the defections as an externally engineered move rather than a sign of ideological drift.