New Delhi [India], April 27 : Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday welcomed seven Aam Aadmi Party MPs into the Bharatiya Janata Party, after Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan approved their merger.
Welcoming the MPs into what he described as the "nation-building" fold under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rijiju also took a swipe at the Opposition INDIA bloc, calling it the "Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance."
In a post on X, Rijju said, "Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan has accepted the merger of 7 AAP MPs with BJP. Now, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta & Vikramjit Singh Sahney are Members of the BJP Parliamentary Party. For a long time, I've observed that these 7 MPs have not resorted to abusive language and never created any indiscipline and unparliamentary conduct. Welcome to nation building NDA under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi and goodbye to Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance."
The BJP s strength in the Rajya Sabha has increased to 113 after Chairman CP Radhakrishnan approved the merger of Raghav Chadha and six other MPs who quit AAP.
Losing two-thirds of its MPs has been a big setback for the AAP, which is now reduced to a strength of three members in the Upper House of Parliament.
The trio of MPsRaghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittalparted ways with the AAP on Friday and subsequently joined the BJP in the presence of party leadership. Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Swati Maliwal had also switched to the BJP.
Meanwhile, AAP MP Sanjay Singh had officially petitioned the Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan to disqualify seven MPs.
The petition challenged the "purported merger" under paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and sought the disqualification of the MPs under its paragraph 2(1)(a).
Singh challenged the validity of the merger, citing the requirements in the Constitution.
However, as per the Tenth Schedule, a disqualification of MPs cannot take place in case an original political party merges with another political party, given that the merger includes two-thirds of the members. The seven AAP MPs fulfilled this condition as they shook hands with the BJP.
The move has triggered furious reactions from AAP leaders, who termed it a s "betrayal" while drawing a warm welcome from the BJP.
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