‘Fellow MLAs will remain outside’: Punjab CM to meet President Murmu over seven AAP RS MPs joining BJP | India News
New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is scheduled to meet President Draupadi Murmu on May 5 “to preserve the order of the people”, following the exodus of 7 Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party.“Mann has sought time to meet the President with party legislators to press for the “withdrawal” of seven Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party, which has merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party.In a social media post on X, Mann said that though he sought time to meet President Draupadi Murmu along with state AAP MLAs regarding the defection of 7 Rajya Sabha MPs, the President agreed to meet him alone on May 5 at 12 noon.He said he would reach the Rashtrapati Bhavan with party MLAs from the state and they would wait outside.“It is our duty to protect the mandate and democratic values of the people of Punjab. I am happy to inform you that Hon’ble President Draupadi Murmu ji has scheduled a meeting on May 5 at 12 noon. Though we sought time from all the MLAs, I was the only one invited to meet,” Mann said.“I will reach the Rashtrapati Bhavan with my fellow MLAs. My fellow MLAs will stay outside, and I will go inside to represent the voice of Punjab and the people with full strength before the Hon’ble President Ji on behalf of all. The next strategy will be shared after the meeting. Heartfelt thanks to the Hon’ble President Ji for giving this valuable time,” he added.However, there is no provision in the Act to recall the MLA.On April 24, the Aam Aadmi Party suffered a setback when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs — Raghav ChadhaAshok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahni and Swati Maliwal — joined the BJP alleging that the party had deviated from its principles, values and core ethos. Six of the seven MPs who quit AAP are from Punjab.“We have decided that we, two-thirds of AAP’s members in the Rajya Sabha, will exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge with the BJP,” Raghav Chadha said at a press conference.This comes after weeks of rising tensions between Chadha and the party leadership. Earlier this month, he was removed as AAP’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and senior leaders accused the Center and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of indulging in “soft PR” instead of taking it aggressively.His growing distance from the party became evident over the past year as Chadha was abroad when Kejriwal was arrested in March 2024 in an excise policy case and spent nearly six months in jail.Senior party leaders also alleged that Chadha was reluctant to raise issues linked to AAP’s political stance. They pointed to the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and his refusal to sign a notice for his failure to join the opposition walkout in Parliament.Chadha, however, rejected the allegations, calling them “white lies” and challenged the team to provide proof.Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan on Monday formally accepted the merger of MPs with the BJP, reducing Arvind Kejriwal’s party’s strength in the Upper House to three.As per the updated list, the Congress has 29 members, while the Trinamool Congress has bagged 13 seats. DMK has 8 members, followed by YSR Congress Party with 7. Biju Janata Dal has 6 members, and AIADMK has 5. Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party have 4 members each.
