{"id":13651,"date":"2026-04-24T12:27:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=13651"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:27:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:27:40","slug":"130492071-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=13651","title":{"rendered":"Raghav Chadha: 7 of 10 AAP MPs in Rajya Sabha join BJP: Why this number matters | India News &#8211; The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<div class=\"aHAWH\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130492463,imgsize-778155,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/130492463.jpg\" title=\"Meet The 7 AAP MPs Who Resigned And Joined BJP In Big Political Shock To Kejriwal\" imgsize=\"\" resizemode=\"4\" offsetvertical=\"0\" placeholdersrc=\"\" placeholdermsid=\"47529300\" msid=\"\" type=\"thumb\" alt=\"Meet The 7 AAP MPs Who Resigned And Joined BJP In Big Political Shock To Kejriwal\" class=\"undefined\"\/><\/div>\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined   YjeWt\" style=\"top:0px\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/raghav-chadha\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Raghav Chadha<\/a>&#8216;s announcement of qutting Aam Aadmi Party and joining Bharatiya Janata Party was not a lone move. It was linked to specific constitutional provisions involving terms such as \u201ctwo-thirds\u201d and \u201cmerger.<!-- -->\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>&#8220;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,&#8221; he said addressing a press conference.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"9\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3>Here&#8217;s why it matters:<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>If at least two-thirds of the members of a party in the House agree to merge with another party, it is treated as a valid merger and not defection. In such cases, members are not disqualified under the anti-defection law, making this provision crucial in group-level political realignments like the one announced by MPs.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/>Currently, there are 10 MPs in Rajya Sabha from AAP. After this move, two-third, that is, 7 are set to merge with BJP. If this number was any less, those wanting to merge would have to give up their Upper House membership.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>Hence, if Chadha had quit alone, he would have to give up his Rajya Sabha membership. But that is not the case as the outgoing AAP leader is joined by Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sahni.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>The anti-defection law, under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, is meant to prevent MPs from switching parties after being elected and to maintain stability in Parliament, including the Rajya Sabha. It provides for disqualification if a member voluntarily gives up party membership or votes against the party whip.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>In Rajya Sabha, the decision on disqualification is taken by the chairman based on a petition from another member. However, the law also includes an exception for mergers, which is where the \u201ctwo-thirds\u201d condition becomes important.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/> <\/p>\n<div class=\"wLCOS vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"ap_Bf\">\n<div class=\"ZM4zO\">\n<p><i class=\"bo2C4\"\/> <span>Watch<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <!-- -->Meet The 7 AAP MPs Who Resigned And Joined BJP In Big Political Shock To Kejriwal<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/7-of-10-aap-mps-in-rajya-sabha-join-bjp-why-this-number-matters\/articleshow\/130492071.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha&#8216;s announcement of qutting Aam Aadmi Party and joining&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32514,32511,32513,724,723,719,720,721,32518,32517,32515,4430,32512,16605,722,32516],"class_list":["post-13651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aap-mps-merge-with-bjp","tag-anti-defection-law-india","tag-bjp-aap-merger-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-google-news","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-indian-political-parties","tag-merger-provisions-constitution","tag-political-realignment-in-india","tag-raghav-chadha","tag-raghav-chadha-joins-bjp","tag-rajya-sabha-mps","tag-today-news","tag-two-thirds-majority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}