AAP's Rajya Sabha Bloc Fractures as Seven MPs Walk to BJP
Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs — nearly two-thirds of the party's upper house contingent — have merged with the BJP, gutting Kejriwal's national legislative presence.
Raghav Chadha, once Arvind Kejriwal's most telegenic national face, led six colleagues into the BJP's headquarters on April 24, announcing a formal merger under constitutional provisions designed to shield defecting legislators from disqualification. The group — Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney, and Swati Maliwal — represents roughly two-thirds of AAP's Rajya Sabha strength, the precise threshold required to invoke the anti-defection exemption under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. 
The Hindu
The Legal Architecture of the Defection
This was not a hasty walk-out — it was a calculated legal manoeuvre. The Tenth Schedule bars individual defectors from Parliament but exempts a group constituting at least two-thirds of a party's legislative wing when it formally merges with another party. By reaching the two-thirds threshold in the Rajya Sabha, the seven MPs insulate themselves from disqualification proceedings. AAP will almost certainly challenge the merger before the Rajya Sabha Chairman, arguing the original party strength calculation is disputed — but the constitutional runway favours the defectors once the threshold is met.
The backstory matters. AAP had already begun purging Chadha internally in April 2026, demoting him from Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader and replacing him with Ashok Mittal — who has now crossed the floor alongside him. The Hindu The demotion accelerated the timeline; Chadha had the grievance, the network, and the headcount.
Who Wins, Who Loses
BJP gains the most immediately. The defection adds seven Rajya Sabha votes to the NDA bloc at a moment when the upper house remains a meaningful brake on legislation — including pending amendments to the Women's Reservation Act that require expanded seat delimitation. More symbolically, BJP strips AAP of its most recognizable national communicators ahead of what is shaping up as an aggressive 2027 state election calendar, including Punjab, where AAP governs.
Kejriwal loses on three levels: numerically (AAP's Rajya Sabha presence is now skeletal), narratively (the "honest politics" brand takes another hit after Manish Sisodia's legal troubles), and geographically (the defectors are predominantly Punjab-linked MPs, signalling fractures in the party's only state government). Kejriwal's framing — that BJP "gave Punjabis a shove" — is a play for victim politics in Punjab, but it does little to address the organisational rot the defection exposes.
Swati Maliwal's inclusion is the sharpest symbolic cut. Her public falling-out with Kejriwal's office in 2024 made her the most high-profile internal critic; her presence in the BJP press conference reactivates that controversy and gives the BJP ready-made ammunition.
What to Watch Next
Three decision points in the coming weeks:
- Rajya Sabha Chairman's ruling on the merger's validity — AAP will file an objection; the Chairman's timeline and reasoning will determine whether any disqualification proceedings begin.
- Punjab political fallout — with the AAP state government intact but its Delhi-to-Delhi communication channel severed, watch for early signals of floor-crossing pressure on Punjab MLAs before the next budget session.
- Chadha's portfolio assignment — whether BJP fields him as a spokesperson or parks him quietly will signal whether this is a genuine political recruitment or a strategic decapitation of the opposition.
For ongoing coverage of 
Indian politics and the broader international implications of India's shifting parliamentary arithmetic, follow Diplomat Briefing.
