Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh among 7 AAP MPs switching to BJP along with Raghav Chadha

Chadha said that he had increasingly felt like “the right man in the wrong party” over the past few years.

Saying the party he “nurtured with blood and sweat” had strayed from its core values, Raghav Chadha on Friday announced that he is distancing himself from the Aam Aadmi Party and moving closer to the public, as he prepares to join the BJP along with Swati Maliwal, Harbhajan Singh and other AAP MPs.

Addressing a press conference alongside Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal, Chadha said that seven out of AAP’s 10 Rajya Sabha MPs are set to merge with the BJP. The MPs joining the BJP include cricketer-turned-politician Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Rajendra Gupta, Vikram Sahni and Ashok Mittal, apart from himself and Pathak.

“The AAP, which I nurtured with my blood and gave 15 years of my youth to, has deviated from its principles, values and core morals,” Chadha said, adding that the party no longer works in the national interest but for “personal benefits”.

He further stated that he had increasingly felt like “the right man in the wrong party” over the past few years, prompting his decision to part ways.

Chadha said the group has already submitted a formal letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan, along with all necessary documents to facilitate the merger.

Citing constitutional provisions, he noted that a merger is valid if at least two-thirds of a party’s MPs agree to join another party.