Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Despite the breakaway faction of AAP MPs claiming they have fortified themselves legally with two-third of the party’s members in the Upper House merging with BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday announced that they will be writing to the Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan to seek the disqualification of seven of its members who crossed over a day ago.Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has also sought time from President Droupadi Murmu for a meeting, along with party MLAs, to demand a “recall” of the seven MPs. Incidentally the Constitution does not provide for the ‘right to recall’ of MPs or MLAs, guaranteeing them a fixed term.Claiming that the move by the seven- Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney – was “unconstitutional and illegal”, AAP’s leader in Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Singh highlighted that “the anti-defection law clearly states that no form of split is permissible in the assembly, Rajya Sabha, or Lok Sabha. It has no legal recognition, and this has also been clearly established in the Shiv Sena case.”However most legal experts, with the exception of Kapil Sibal, have been unanimous in highligting the Tenth Schedule’s inability to stop political defections when they acquire the scale of “merger” and said joining of BJP by AAP MPs would not fall foul of the anti-defection law, which approves two-thirds of a legislature party to break away and merge with another party.However, Sanjay Singh cited the Tenth Schedule to say that it clearly provides that any kind of split, even if it involves a two-thirds majority or increases from seven to eight members, has no legal validity.“Therefore, the defection of these seven Rajya Sabha MPs from the AAP is entirely illegal, incorrect, unconstitutional, and against parliamentary rules,” he said, and added that he would submit a letter to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, citing all these rules and demand the complete termination of the membership of all seven MPs.Meanwhile, reiterating his stand, Chadha on Saturday was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that those quitting the party have not done so out of fear but due to a growing sense of “disappointment, disengagement and disgust” with the existing leadership.Party insiders share that AAP’s leadership was aware for the past few days that its MPs had been approached by BJP, sources said. There were some last-ditch efforts to prevent at least two MPs from switching over to the BJP by AAP top brass.Besides the buzz that MPs like Mittal moved to BJP allegedly due to pressure of ED cases, the developments shine a light on the organisational challenges within AAP.For instance, not just Chadha, Pathak’s disgruntlement had also been growing for a long time. Both had played crucial roles in ticket distribution in Punjab and paved the way for victory in the state. Pathak, however, faced gradual marginalisation after the party lost the Delhi polls, sources said.Speaking to TOI, Vikramjit Sahney said that one of the reasons for his decision was a growing disenchantment with the functioning of the state govt and & Punjab facing dire crisis – ranging from rising debt that has crossed Rs 4.5 lakh crore to the agrarian crisis, no agri processing, drug menace and slow implementation of projects. “Some of us MPs also felt that the leadership was not accessible – especially Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann who was hard to reach and not receptive to suggestions,” he alleged.
