New Delhi:
Raghav Chadha has announced that he will join the BJP along with a big chunk of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s MPs in the Rajya Sabha, dealing a major blow to party chief and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who had demoted him weeks earlier.
About two-thirds of the AAP’s 10 MPs in the Upper House would merge with the BJP, Chadha said at a press conference this afternoon, accusing the party that once came to power in Delhi over promises to fight corruption, of moving away from honest politics.
“We have signed and sent it to the chairman of Rajya Sabha,” he said.
Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are among those merging with the BJP, he noted, listing the names of four other leaders: Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak.
“The AAP that I gave 15 years of my life. Now the party has stepped away from the honest politics. I am the right man in the wrong party. I am moving away from the party and going close to people. Today, the AAP is corrupt and compromised,” the young leader said.
Sources suggest he could be made a minister after he joins the BJP.
Chadha had been with the AAP since its inception in 2012, working as a trusted lieutenant to Kejriwal, who stormed into power in Delhi in 2015 riding the wave that followed the anti-corruption movement.
Justifying his move to switch to the BJP, Chadha said that AAP is no more the same party that it used to be.
“I was the founding member of this party. We with full commitment has established the party in Punjab, Delhi and other parts. Today AAP is corrupt and compromised. The AAP is not the old party. I don’t want to engage in the wrong doings of AAP,”
He said he had only two options: either leave politics or do the right rights. He chose the second, he indicated, adding, “We, the two-thirds sitting member AAP from Rajya Sabha will merge with the BJP.”
