AAP MPs have cited several reasons for leaving party: HM Amit Shah

New Delhi, April 24 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the decision taken by AAP MPs from Rajya Sabha, including Raghav Chadha, to part ways with their party is based on several reasons cited by them.

HM Shah’s remarks during an election rally in West Bengal coincided with Chadha announcing a divorce with the AAP and leading a three-member party Rajya Sabha MPs’ team to meet BJP National President Nitin Nabin at the party headquarters here.

Chadha had cited the AAP “stepping away from honest politics” as a key reason behind the decision by him and six other AAP MPs from Rajya Sabha to merge their parliamentary faction with the BJP. The AAP has 10 MPs in the Upper House.

In a message on X, Chadha said, “Today, exercising the provisions of the Constitution of India, more than two-thirds of the AAP MPs in the Rajya Sabha have merged with the BJP. Seven MPs have signed the document, which was submitted to the Hon’ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. I, along with two other MPs, personally handed over the signed documents.”

Chadha was accompanied by Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal during the meeting with BJP president Nitin Nabin, who offered sweets to the AAP MPs after they went public with their switchover plan.

Earlier, addressing a press conference along with AAP MPs Mittal and Pathak, Chadha said, "We have decided that we, the 2/3rd members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP."

“The AAP that I gave 15 years of my life. Now the party has stepped away from honest politics. I am the right man in the wrong party. I am moving away from the party and going close to people," he said, adding that Rajya Sabha party colleagues like Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are among those parting ways with the AAP.