In one of the most dramatic political defections of 2026, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha announced at a press conference in Delhi — alongside Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal — that two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members have decided to merge with the BJP, invoking the constitutional provisions for a valid legislative merger.
“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,” Chadha said.
The announcement comes barely three weeks after AAP stripped Chadha of his position as the party’s Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha.
The Constitutional Provision Being Invoked
A merger of political party members in Parliament is governed by the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution — the anti-defection law. Under Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule, a merger is deemed to have taken place if not less than two-thirds of the members of a legislature party agree to the merger with another political party. A valid two-thirds merger exempts the merging members from disqualification under the anti-defection law.
AAP currently has 10 members in the Rajya Sabha. Two-thirds of that figure is approximately 6.67 — meaning at least 7 members need to have formally agreed to the merger for it to qualify as constitutionally valid and protected from disqualification proceedings. Chadha’s statement claiming exactly “2/3rd members” is the constitutional threshold language that the merger group will need to satisfy before the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
The Context — What Led Here
On April 2, 2026, AAP suddenly removed Chadha from the post of its deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, replacing him with Punjab MP Ashok Kumar Mittal — said to be the result of Chadha’s prolonged absence from key party events and perceived silence on sensitive issues. The removal had sparked significant speculation about the nature of Chadha’s relationship with the party leadership.
The speculation intensified when Punjab AAP’s Chief Spokesperson Baltej Pannu alleged that Chadha had been “used as a tool” in a conspiracy allegedly engineered by the BJP, claiming Chadha was promised a ministerial berth at the Centre in return for helping the BJP weaken AAP in Punjab. Pannu directly accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of being involved in the alleged plot, stating that Chadha was asked to bring seven AAP MPs into the BJP fold.
Those allegations, denied at the time, now appear to have been a pre-announcement reading of precisely what has transpired. The press conference with Sandeep Pathak — who was among AAP’s five original Rajya Sabha nominees from Punjab elected in March 2022 — and Ashok Mittal, who was just installed as Chadha’s replacement as Deputy Leader, confirms that the defection goes beyond Chadha alone.
Raghav Chadha’s Political Journey
Chadha, 37, has been one of AAP’s most prominent national faces since the party’s early days. A chartered accountant by training and a Modern School and Delhi University alumnus, he joined AAP in 2012 and rose rapidly through the organisation. He won the Rajinder Nagar Delhi Assembly seat in 2020 with a 57% vote share before being elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab in March 2022 — becoming the youngest Rajya Sabha MP in Indian history at the time at age 33.
He subsequently married Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra in 2023 and was appointed AAP’s leader in the Rajya Sabha in December 2023 when Sanjay Singh was in jail in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. His profile within the party was at its peak heading into 2024 before the series of political events that have culminated in today’s announcement.
What This Means for AAP
The loss of two-thirds of its Rajya Sabha presence in a single press conference is a catastrophic development for AAP at a moment when the party is already under pressure from the Delhi election results and the various legal cases involving its senior leadership. In the Rajya Sabha, where AAP had been using its 10-member presence to raise issues, participate in debates and exercise procedural rights, the merger leaves the party with at most three or four members — insufficient to maintain a recognised group in the House.
AAP’s Punjab unit has accused the BJP of engineering a split through the Enforcement Directorate, with Pannu alleging that the atmosphere of fear created by ED action was being used to pressure AAP MPs. Whether that characterisation — of coerced defection versus voluntary merger — becomes the contested political narrative around today’s announcement will define how the story develops in the coming days.
For BJP, the merger adds experienced parliamentary voices who know AAP’s vulnerabilities from the inside — and potentially provides access to the Punjab political intelligence that Chadha and his colleagues have accumulated over years of operation in the state.
Disclaimer: This article is based on press conference statements and published reports. Constitutional validity of the merger will be determined by the Rajya Sabha Chairman. All legal and political implications are subject to further developments.