The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has sought the removal of seven of its MPs who merged with the BJP from the Rajya Sabha, citing their disqualification on the grounds of defection. Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs — Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahni, Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh and Rajender Gupta — walked out of the party on Friday.
Chadha announced the decision at a press conference, saying they have two-thirds of the total number of AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha, a mark required to avoid exclusion from the House. The party had 10 MPs in the Senate, seven of whom “merged” with the BJP.
“Under the Constitution, two-thirds of the total representatives of any party can merge with another party,” Chadha said.
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What reasons did AAP cite for sacking MPs?
MP Sanjay Singh, one of the three party MLAs remaining in the Upper House, on Sunday submitted a petition to Rajya Sabha Speaker C P Radhakrishnan seeking disqualification of the seven MPs.
Addressing a press conference, Sanjay Singh claimed that the move by the seven MPs was against the provisions of the anti-defection law.
This Act, in accordance with the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution under the 52nd Amendment, provides grounds for disqualification if members voluntarily resign from their party, or vote or abstain from voting in the House contrary to the directions of his or her political party. Thus, members can be excluded if they voluntarily renounce party membership or vote against the party whips.
One exception to the law is a merger with another party, provided at least a third of lawmakers approve, a warning cited by Raghav Chadha and six other lawmakers.
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The AAP, citing the anti-defection law, has urged the Rajya Sabha Speaker to terminate the membership of the seven leaders.
The party claimed that he was elected to the Senate on an AAP ticket but later decided to leave the party and join the BJP. Such a defection also constitutes a “betrayal” of the people’s mandate, in this case of Punjab specifically, and is against the spirit of the Constitution, Singh said. Six of the seven MPs who left were Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab.
“After consulting all experts and seeking the opinion of Mr. (Kapil) Sibal, I have sent a petition to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Vice President of India, requesting that the membership of these seven members be completely terminated, in accordance with the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” Singh said.
AAP will communicate with President Murmu separately
AAP planned to approach Rajya Sabha Chairman CB Radhakrishnan and President Draupadi Murmu separately. While the party plans to continue the work in Parliament, AAP is also looking to take the matter up at the constitutional level.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has sought an appointment with the President to formally demand the “recall” of the six elected defectors from the state, people familiar with the matter said, according to an earlier HT report.
The Constitution does not currently contain any such provision regarding “summoning”.
However, in February, Raghav Chadha floated a similar mechanism, called the “right of recall,” saying it would allow voters to remove inactive elected representatives before the end of their term.
In this context, Ashok Agarwal, former Solicitor General of Punjab, told HT, “No confidence clause is not available in the Constitution under any schedule at all. There is no scope for no confidence.”
