AAP to push for disqualification of Chadha, Mittal, and Pathak

AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday said he would submit a letter to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, requesting that former party MPs Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, and Sandeep Pathak be disqualified from their Rajya Sabha membership for joining the BJP.

“This is equivalent to voluntarily giving up membership of their party under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” Singh said on a day the three MPs resigned from AAP and joined the BJP.

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Earlier, Chadha said that four other MPs — Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney and Swati Maliwal — were also with them, taking the total number to seven, a two-third strength legally required for a merger. They were, however, not present when Chadha, Pathak and Mittal met BJP president Nitin Nabin at party headquarters

Chadha said more than two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs had signed a letter submitted to the Chairman. “There are 10 AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha, and more than two-thirds are with us. Seven MPs have submitted the required documents,” he added.

Under the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (Anti-Defection Law), a merger is legally recognised, and members are not disqualified, if two-thirds or more of the members of a legislative party agree to merge with another party.