New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday welcomed the merger of seven Rajya Sabha members, who defected from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), praising them for “never resorting to abusive language” or creating “indiscipline” in the House.

This came as the Rajya Sabha released a fresh list of party positions on Monday after seven members defected from the AAP and announced their merger with the BJP.

This change increased the BJP’s representation in the House from 107 to 113 members, while that of AAP has decreased to three.

The defectors — Raghav Chadha, Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta, and Vikram Sahni — revealed their decision to leave AAP last week and join the BJP.

Taking to X, Rijiju said, “Hon’ble Chairman Rajya Sabha Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan Ji has accepted the merger of 7 AAP MPs with BJP. Now, Raghav Chadha ji, Sandeep Pathak ji, Ashok Mittal ji, Harbhajan Singh ji, Swati Maliwal ji, Rajinder Gupta ji and Vikramjit Singh Sahney ji are Members of the BJP Parliamentary Party.”

Praising their conduct in the Parliament, the Minister said, “For a long time I’ve observed that these 7 Hon’ble MPs have not resorted to abusive language and never created any indiscipline and unparliamentary conduct.”

Welcoming them to the BJP, he said, “Welcome to nation building NDA under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and goodbye to Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance.”

This move further strengthened the BJP’s presence in the Upper House of Parliament. Now, only three members of AAP — Sanjay Singh, Narain Dass Gupta and Sant Balbir Singh — represent the party in the Rajya Sabha.

The group that defected represented a two-thirds majority of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members.

According to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985, members cannot defect; however, there is an exception for “mergers.”

If two-thirds of a party’s elected members agree to merge with another party, they are not disqualified, nor are the members who choose to remain in the original party. Chadha and the six others cited this rule to validate their merger.

–IANS

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