After Raghav Chadha and six other Rajya Sabha MPs walked out of the Aam Aadmi Party, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann criticized the move and stated that the MPs “cannot do as they please”.
Mann on Tuesday met President Draupadi Murmu and demanded termination of membership of six Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab who defected to the BJP. The meeting comes shortly after Chadha held a meeting with the President.
Speaking to reporters after his meeting with President Murmu, Mann said there is a law in place for everything, criticizing the decision of the seven leaders to go and merge with the BJP.
“If seven out of ten of our MPs come together and announce their merger with another party, there is no such law. They cannot do as they please,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
The Punjab leader also added that if Chadha and other MPs hated being part of the APC, they should have tendered their resignations and then joined another party.
Mann also criticized the decision of the seven AAP “rebels” as unconstitutional, calling for the membership of Rajya Sabha MPs to be cancelled.
“After resigning, they could have been elected from anywhere… I told the President how democracy is currently being mocked in Punjab… Their membership should be cancelled… If there is no provision for impeachment, then make an amendment,” Mann added.
Raghav Chadha accuses AAP of practicing ‘dangerous vendetta politics’
Following Mann’s remarks, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday accused the AAP-led Punjab government of indulging in “vengeance politics” and misusing state machinery to target MPs who recently left the party and merged with the BJP in the Rajya Sabha.
“All those MPs who exercised their constitutional right to express their disagreement with the Aam Aadmi Party and chose to leave it, and all these events and developments, were presented today before the President of India. I also want to say to the Aam Aadmi Party that as long as we were obedient, we were considered intellectuals. The moment we left, we were called corrupt,” Chadha told reporters after his meeting with the President.
Tensions remain high in the AAP
Mann’s remarks come after seven AAP MPs from Punjab, including Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, merged with the BJP in the Rajya Sabha.
With this merger, the BJP’s strength in the Senate increased to 113 seats, marking a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party.
After the exit of the seven MPs, the seats held by AAP in the Rajya Sabha were reduced to three.
