BJP’s Rajya Sabha tally rises to 113 after AAP MPs' merger gets approval from chair

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now has 113 members in the Rajya Sabha after the Upper House’s chairman sanctioned the merger of a group of seven Aam Aadmi Party MPs with it, even as there was no response to a complaint from AAP seeking their disqualification. Raghav Chadha on Friday announced that two-thirds of members of the AAP in the Rajya Sabha were merging with the BJP. (HT PHOTO) (HT_PRINT)On Monday, the Rajya Sabha secretariat notified the relative party positions in the Upper House, indicating that the “merger” was permitted by chairman CP Radhakrishnan. The total strength of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition has now risen to 149 in the 245-member House. The 113 also includes five nominated MPs. “There is no official communication other than the revised party position… which itself is an indication of the merger being allowed,” said a Rajya Sabha functionary, asking not to be named. The revised party position prompted a letter from Sanjay Singh, one of the three AAP MPs left in the Rajya Sabha and leader of the AAP parliamentary party to the Rajya Sabha’s secretary general, seeking a clarification on the alteration of his party’s strength in the “official records”, the date on which such alteration was made, and the person who authorised it. Also Read | AAP split puts 'merger' clause of defection law under scrutiny | Explained On Friday, seven AAP MPs –– Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Vikramjit Sahney, and Rajinder Gupta from Punjab, and Swati Maliwal, from Delhi –– announced their decision to merge with the BJP. Since the seven accounted for two-thirds of the party’s 10 MPs in the Upper House, they claimed they were immune to disqualification under the anti-defection law. To be sure, this is dependant on an interpretation of “party” in the law to mean the legislative party (the strength of the party in the House) and not political party –– a norm that has been followed in several similar instances. AAP on Sunday filed a complaint seeking their disqualification. Singh said the merger is not legal as the law requires two- thirds of the “original” party to merge. “After consulting constitutional experts and seeking legal opinion from (lawyer) Kapil Sibal, I have sent a petition to the Chairman requesting that the membership of these members be terminated as per the 10th Schedule of the Constitution,” he added. The functionary quoted above said there is still no word on the chairman’s response to Singh’s complaint. “The issue is not time bound and it is the chairman’s call…” the functionary said. Singh’s Monday letter was also marked to the Rajya Sabha chairman. The Congress said the decision of the Rajya Sabha chairman accepting the merger of the seven AAP MPs with the BJP is “not at all surprising”. “The decision of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha to accept the merger of the 7 AAP MPs into the BJP is not at all surprising -- in fact the only surprise is that it took so long and was not formally accepted over the weekend,” Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said on X. The merger has come as shot in the arm for the BJP and NDA which is now inching closer to two-thirds majority in the Upper House. By the end of the year, 30 more seats will be vacated and the BJP is hopeful of gaining at least five more. The Congress with 29 is the second largest party in the Rajya Sabha followed by TMC with 13; DMK with 8; YSRCP with 7; Biju Janata Dal with 6; AIADMK with 5; and Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party with four each. Smriti covers an intersection of politics and governance. Having spent over a decade in journalism, she combines old fashioned leg work with modern story telling tools.