The scale of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) walkout – seven members of Parliament in one go, with at least three joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – may have surprised everyone on Friday, but it was a series of expected defections.
People familiar with the matter say the story began in 2024 with two developments: preparations for the Delhi elections had begun, and some RJD leaders were not satisfied with how their government was doing in Punjab. All seven Rajya Sabha members from Punjab are from AAP. Six of them were among the seven who left the party on Friday. Punjab, which has an AAP government, will go to the polls in early 2027.
One of them is Sandeep Pathak, an academic at the Indian Institute of Technology who initially worked as an election strategist for the AAP. Pathak played a key role during the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections, analyzing data to decide which candidates were shortlisted.
But all this changed with the Delhi elections. While professionals like Pathak used to give their inputs directly to party chief Arvind Kejriwal earlier, suddenly the latter’s aides were taking key decisions. “Slowly but surely, all my responsibilities were taken away from me,” Pathak reportedly confided to someone, going so far as to claim that the loss in the Delhi elections was due to the new set of advisors on which Kejriwal was relying.
Pathak did not respond to HT’s specific queries on the matter. However, in a press conference, he described his exit as “not personal.”
The disillusionment extended to the functioning of the parliamentary party led by Sanjay Singh, AAP Rajya Sabha MP. Long before Raghav Chadha went public with his grievances about not being allowed to speak in the Senate, the G10 in the Rajya Sabha acted as independent agents (apart from the seven in Punjab, the AAP also had three MLAs from Delhi; one of whom resigned on Friday).
According to at least three of the seven MPs who resigned on Friday, they did not receive any guidance from the party on what issues to raise or strategies to adopt within Parliament.
“I just talk and raise what I want, and no one tells me,” Harbhajan Singh said when asked about this during the budget session. The fact that the party’s choice to replace Chadha as deputy leader in the RSP, Ashok Mittal, who also joined the BJP on Friday, highlights how Kejriwal misjudged the extent of drift within his party.
“A lot of people from AAP keep calling us as well. People want to leave it. They want to leave it,” Punjab Congress MP Amar Singh said. AAP will not be able to find candidates in the state.
The fact that the seven MPs were looking for alternatives to the AAP was also confirmed by an Akali Dal functionary, who said that one of the seven had met Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal recently. “Most of these people are those who are in the Rajya Sabha because they can fund elections. If you are in a party because of your financial strength, you will choose whoever has influence,” he said.
While the BJP holds up the defections as an example of its appeal, AAP insiders point out that this was more to do with the younger party’s organizational problems. For example, six of its council members in Chandigarh recently resigned to join the Congress.
Events in Punjab seem to have tipped the scales. Chadha and others led a large group of Punjab lawmakers to meet Kejriwal sometime in 2024, two of the lawmakers who resigned said, on condition of anonymity.
“They came to Delhi and camped here, telling Kejriwal that the Punjab government is not being run properly,” one of them said. At the time, Sanjay Singh dismissed these matters as part of Punjabi opposition propaganda. But soon after, Chadha began to lose his previous influence within the party. First, he lost his designated headquarters in Punjab, then his security cover, and finally his office in Punjab Bhavan in Delhi.
Kejriwal has put his weight behind Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s leadership in the state.
Hizb ut Tahrir learned that the BJP’s decision to provide a home to these disgruntled MPs was taken when Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Punjab and held a rally in Moga last month. But whether the move will really help the party in Punjab is debatable, political leaders said.
“The thing about voters in Punjab is that they are a different group. They don’t like the ‘wall’ (traitors). I have a feeling this may end up helping the AAP,” a Congress member from the state said.
He pointed out that none of the seven had a voter base that the BJP could rely on. However, there are two immediate advantages that the BJP is counting on. First, its numbers in Parliament were strengthened. Secondly, defections may improve the party’s image before the crucial second phase of elections in West Bengal.
There is also the potential medium-term benefit of Chadha and others being able to persuade some PJD lawmakers in Punjab to defect. However, a BJP minister admitted that doing well in Punjab requires more effort. “Does that mean they (the defectors) will help us win Punjab? No, I think we will have to work hard there,” he said.
Apart from external issues, the party will also have to address internal issues. The current Punjab BJP president, Sunil Jakhar, resigned from the post in 2024, only to be persuaded to stay on. Veteran leader Captain Amarinder Singh spoke about how difficult the BJP’s work is for people like him. The party now has to deal with a new group of renegades to absorb. But the BJP has always enjoyed solving many problems.
