When seven Aam Aadmi Rajya Sabha MPs announced their merger with the BJP on Friday, six of them were from Punjab. One name from the state currently ruled by AAP was conspicuously absent from the list. Balbir Singh Seechwal, a Padma Shri award-winning eco-spiritual leader from Jalandhar district, stayed behind. He now spoke about what he already knew, and why he said no.
Call from Sahni: “Many have signed up”
Sishwal told local media that he was contacted immediately before the defection. “Vikram Sahni called. He said they were forming an independent group, and many had signed it. He asked me to sign as well,” Sishwal told at least two online channels on Saturday.
“I said no. I had no desire to,” he said.
He also said that Sahni told him that many of the members who signed included “the university” – a reference to Ashok Kumar Mittal, founder of Lovely Professional University who flanked the group’s leader Raghav Chadha, along with Sandeep Pathak, at the switch announcement on Friday.
Read also | “Frustration was building…”: RS member Vikramjit Sahni on what he told Kejriwal in the meeting before the big move by 7 AAP MPs
Tea Invitation: “They Never Asked Me Before”
Amid reports of some discussions over tea with Chadha, Seewal referred to a previous presentation during the Parliament session on April 16-18.
“Unhaan ne keha, ‘Baba ji, tuhanu aapan chaa piaiye, baith ke,'” he told Punjab Tak. (“They said, ‘Baba ji, let’s have some tea and sit together.’”) He said he asked them to have it alone: “Asi keha, ‘pee lo tusi’.”
He said this was the first time they had been invited to tea, “never happened before.” On whether there was any discussion of defection: “No, no one did – if someone tells you otherwise, they are lying.”
The Chadian group said it left the APC because it “deviated from its principles,” and Chad even said its leaders were “corrupt and vulnerable.”
In Chadha and Pathak control of Punjab
Seswal was particularly candid about the roles played by Chadha and Pathak in Punjab, and how prominent they were. “I was very surprised, especially about Sandeep Pathak and Raghav Chadha.”
“Because both of them had complete responsibility at the state level in Punjab. Sandeep Pathak was looking after the party, and on the administrative side, for about two-three years, it was Raghav Chaddha,” Seswal said.
“At that time, he was the supreme ruler of Punjab, and all the eyes of the administration – especially the officers – were on House No. 50,” Sechwal said. House No. 50 In sector 2, ChandigarhHe was stay to Chadha. It is otherwise a camp office and guest house for the Punjab CM.
Even CM Bhagwant Mann used it sarcastically in Chadha earlier in the month: “The Rajya Sabha member who now feels stifled in AAP due to his personal interests has enjoyed the fruits of power in Kothi Number 50.”
The opposition often referred to the case of Chad Serving as Punjab’s ‘Super CM’ – words that have come back since Chadha left the party.
AAP Lok Sabha MP Malwinder Singh Kang also said Chadha, who is primarily a Delhiite despite being culturally a Punjabi Hindu, has “quite a lot of power” in the state.
Sechwal did not say such a thing explicitly. When asked about the mistake that led to the defection of Pathak and Chadha, among others, he said: “What was the reason, why was there disappointment – only they can say that.”
On “Wall”, what comes next
to request Regarding the word “wall” – i.e. traitor – that was sprayed on the homes and offices of dissident MPs across Punjab on Saturday, Seewal refused to use it. He quoted Gurbani – “Nanak phikka boliye, tan man phikka hoye” – to say that by speaking harsh words, a person’s mind and body also become harsh.
on ‘“Operation Lotus” — the AAP’s term for what it says is a split engineered by the BJP, in reference to its poll symbol — has been measured: “Every political party thinks about its own interest.”
He said he did not receive any communication or pressure from the BJP.
“If someone had come to us, we would have just passed them by — that’s why they didn’t.” He said Indian Express. “Now that they are gone, I hope Waheguru will keep them in shardi kala (high spirits),” he said in a message to those who had left.
“I never requested this post.”
Seechwal pointed out that he had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by CM Bhagwant Mann — “not by the Delhi leadership” — and had rejected such an offer several times before accepting it. “I am not afraid of losing any position, neither within the party nor outside it. I never asked for this position,” he said.
He added that the now dissident group “never considered me their colleague” and that his working style made them uncomfortable.
“My presence in the Rajya Sabha, my questions on Punjab issues, and my work on the ground did not suit many of them,” he told IE.
He claimed that he was never allowed to speak on the bills in Parliament by the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha – an indirect reference to Chadha, who was removed from the post on April 2.
Sikhwal is known for mobilizing volunteers to clean the 165-kilometre-long Kali Bean, a river sacred to Sikhs as the site of Guru Nanak’s spiritual revelations. He received the Padma Shri for this work. Since entering Rajya Sabha in 2022, he has maintained one of the highest attendance records among Punjab MPs. He is now the only remaining Rajya Sabha MP from the state in AAP. The other two who remain from Delhi are Sanjay Singh and ND Gupta.
