Raghav Chadha and six other Rajya Sabha MPs who shifted from the Aam Aadmi Party to the Bharatiya Janata Party are set to meet President Droupadi Murmu on May 5, escalating a bitter confrontation with the AAP-led Punjab government over allegations of political vendetta and misuse of state machinery.The delegation plans to submit a complaint claiming that Punjab’s administrative and policing apparatus is being used to target lawmakers who left AAP and joined the BJP. The move follows reports of police action involving Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, one of the seven MPs who crossed over, and comes as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has also sought to take the defection issue to the President.
The seven MPs are Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Rajinder Gupta. Their shift has reduced AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha from 10 to three and strengthened the BJP’s position in the Upper House. The merger was accepted by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan after the MPs invoked the anti-defection law provision allowing a merger when not less than two-thirds of a legislative party moves together.
Chadha has accused the Punjab government of using state power to punish those who changed political allegiance. The immediate flashpoint is Pathak, who is reported to be facing two First Information Reports in Punjab under non-bailable sections. Pathak has said he has not received official communication about the cases and does not know their details. Punjab Police have not publicly clarified the precise nature of the complaints, leaving the matter open to political interpretation.
The BJP has framed the episode as an attempt by the Punjab government to intimidate defectors. Party leaders have argued that the timing of the police action, coming days after the MPs’ shift, points to retaliation rather than routine law enforcement. AAP leaders, on the other hand, have accused the BJP of engineering defections to destabilise the party and weaken the Punjab mandate. Senior AAP figures have described the move as part of “Operation Lotus”, the term the party uses for alleged attempts to poach elected representatives.
The clash has wider constitutional and political implications. AAP has already challenged the merger and pressed for action against the MPs, while the defectors maintain that their move is protected by the anti-defection framework because seven of the party’s 10 Rajya Sabha members moved together. The issue has brought renewed attention to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which was designed to curb individual defections but permits group mergers when the required numerical threshold is met.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is also scheduled to meet President Murmu on May 5 to raise objections to the MPs’ move and seek intervention. Mann has said the defections betray the mandate of Punjab’s voters, as several of the Rajya Sabha MPs were elected from the state after AAP’s sweeping assembly victory in 2022. His meeting and Chadha’s planned delegation have turned Rashtrapati Bhavan into the next venue for a dispute that began inside party ranks and has now moved into constitutional terrain.
The political strain has been building since Chadha was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha shortly before the group’s exit. The shift was especially damaging for AAP because Chadha and Pathak had been among the party’s most visible national faces, while Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal carried their own public profiles beyond the party organisation. Ashok Kumar Mittal, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Rajinder Gupta also gave the move numerical weight by helping the group cross the two-thirds mark.