Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, and Ashok Mittal arrived at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Friday and joined the saffron party in the presence of its national president, Nitin Nabin, after they, along with a group of Aam Aadmi Party MPs, decided to quit the party and merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In total, seven MPs decided to quit the Aam Aadmi Party and join the Bharatiya Janata Party. They are: Raghav Chadha; activist-turned-politician Swati Maliwal; former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh; Sandeep Pathak; Ashok Mittal, founder of Lovely Professional University; entrepreneur and philanthropist Vikram Sahney; and industrialist Rajinder Gupta.
Former AAP MP Raghav Chadha Speaks Out
Addressing a press conference with Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, AAP MP Raghav Chadha says, "We have decided that we, the 2/3rd members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP."
"The AAP that I nurtured with my blood for 15 years has deviated from its path. Now it is working not for the welfare of the country but for its own personal gains... I am moving away from AAP and coming to the people... All of us together had strived to take this party to Delhi, Punjab, and other states of the country," Chadha said in a press conference.
“Before entering politics, I was a practising Chartered Accountant (CA). Along with me on this platform were people from different fields, some were scientists, others were educationists. Today, those leaving the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) include a world-class cricketer, a Padma Shri awardee, and social activists. All these people gave up everything and came together with the resolve to build a corruption-free India and established this party."
"I was a founding member of this party, and perhaps very few people know it better than I do. Together, with full commitment and dedication, we built the party in Delhi, established it in Punjab, and tried to expand it to other states. But today, with great sadness, pain, and shame, I say that the party, which was formed with a pledge to end corruption, is now deeply trapped in the hands of corrupt and compromised individuals. That is why every patriotic person who joined the Aam Aadmi Party to serve the nation has either already left or is leaving the party one by one,” he added.
