Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s attempt to contain a revolt in his parliamentary ranks collapsed after seven of the party’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs quit and moved to the Bharatiya Janata Party, leaving the party facing its gravest organisational crisis since its rise from the anti-corruption movement. Kejriwal had planned to meet the disgruntled MPs on Friday evening and offer a compromise under which at least five of them could be given tickets for the next term if they resigned their seats and stayed within the party fold. People familiar with the matter said he told them that if they were unhappy with the party’s functioning, they could step down and the party would help elect them again. The meeting did not take place because the MPs announced their exit before the outreach could proceed.
Raghav Chadha, once among Kejriwal’s closest aides and a prominent face of AAP’s national expansion, led the breakaway group. The MPs who left were Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Swati Maliwal. Chadha said the group represented two-thirds of AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha and had decided to merge with the BJP under constitutional provisions.
The timing deepened the blow for Kejriwal. AAP had 10 MPs in the Upper House, and seven crossing over together may protect them from disqualification under the anti-defection framework because the Tenth Schedule allows exemption when at least two-thirds of a legislature party agrees to merge with another party. The remaining AAP Rajya Sabha MPs are Sanjay Singh, Balbir Singh Seechewal and N D Gupta.
Chadha’s departure followed a visible rupture with the party leadership after he was replaced as deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. His removal was widely seen as a decisive break in relations with Kejriwal’s inner circle. The surprise lay not in Chadha’s exit alone, but in his ability to bring together a bloc large enough to claim the legal protection of a merger.
AAP leaders responded with anger, framing the defection as a political operation designed to weaken the party ahead of crucial contests. Sanjay Singh accused the BJP of trying to obstruct the functioning of the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government and called the departing MPs traitors to Punjab. Kejriwal posted that the BJP had betrayed Punjabis again, signalling that the party would seek to turn the split into a broader political argument in Punjab.
The rebellion carries immediate parliamentary consequences. AAP’s Rajya Sabha presence has been reduced from 10 to three, weakening its ability to intervene in debates, coordinate with other opposition parties and project itself as a national force. For the BJP, the shift improves its position in the Upper House, where numbers remain central to legislative management and coalition arithmetic.
Punjab is the larger political theatre. Six of the seven MPs who crossed over were connected to Punjab’s Rajya Sabha representation, a state where AAP built its strongest government outside Delhi. Their terms run until 2028, except Maliwal, whose term extends until 2030, meaning the fallout may shape parliamentary alignments for years rather than weeks.
The episode also revives questions about AAP’s internal structure. The party was founded in 2012 on promises of clean politics, decentralisation and internal democracy. Over the years, several early associates and prominent leaders have left after disputes over leadership style, ideological drift or political strategy. The latest rupture is more damaging because it affects AAP’s parliamentary core rather than its peripheral network.
For Kejriwal, the failed outreach suggests that the rebel MPs had already crossed the point of negotiation before the planned meeting. The promise of future tickets was aimed at preventing an immediate rupture, but it came after discontent had hardened into a coordinated move. The fact that the group announced its decision together indicates preparation beyond routine dissent.