Party fell into ‘corrupt hands’: Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha on AAP exit

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha said on Saturday that he and six other Members of Parliament chose to leave the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as the party had fallen into “corrupt and compromised hands”, leaving them “disappointed, disenchanted and disgusted”.

He said that this group, representing a two-thirds faction of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs, will formally merge with the BJP in the coming days.

Speaking to the reporters, Chadha said, “Every true patriot, every individual who nurtured the Aam Aadmi Party with their very blood and sweat, and who had joined the party with immense hope, has either already left the AAP or is in the process of leaving it. This is because every honest and hardworking person now feels that there is nothing left in this party. The AAP is now going down the wrong path, where no one wishes to maintain any association with it. Hence, one by one, numerous leaders have left the Aam Aadmi Party.”

He also added that the Constitution empowers elected MPs to take such decisions if they believe their party has deviated from its principles.

“If they (elected MPs) feel that their party has fallen into corrupt and compromised hands, or that the party is heading down the wrong path, then they have the right to leave their party, provided a sufficient number of MPs wish to do so. To facilitate this, a threshold requiring the support of two-thirds or more of the elected members was established,” he said.

Referring to the scale of the exit of large number of lawmakers from AAP, Chadha added, “It is not just 2-3, but seven MPs who are collectively leaving the Aam Aadmi Party.”

“They are doing so because they believe that the Aam Aadmi Party has indeed fallen into corrupt and compromised hands. And to those who claim, specifically the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, that we left out of fear, let us be clear: we did not leave the Aam Aadmi Party out of fear; we left because we felt disappointed, disenchanted and disgusted,” he said. (IANS)

Also Read: Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal join BJP after severing ties with AAP