'They have bid goodbye to 'tukde-tukde INDI Alliance': Rijiju after 7 AAP MPs officially merge with BJP

Last week, seven MPs from Aam Aadmi Party merged with the BJP. Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta merged with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal's party in the Upper House to three.

On Monday, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted the merger.

Following this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju welcomed them into the NDA, and said the leaders have bid goodbye to the "Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance".

Taking to his X account, Rijiju wrote, "Honb'le 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 & Vikramjit Singh Sahney ji are Members of BJP Parliamentary Party."

"For a long time I've observed that these 7 Honb'le MPs have not resorted to abusive languages and never created any indiscipline and Un-Parliamentary conducts," he further added.

Rijiju welcomed them to "nation building NDA under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi", and "good bye to Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance."

The AAP had earlier on Sunday termed their merger as "unconstitutional" and said they have moved a petition before the RS Chairman seeking the termination of the membership of the seven MPs, who had switched sides.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh had said that he has submitted a petition to Chairman Radhakrishnan seeking the disqualification of the seven party MPs in the Upper House who recently quit the AAP and announced their merger with the BJP.

On Friday last, the AAP suffered a jolt when the seven Rajya Sabha MPs quit and announced their merger with the BJP, alleging that the Kejriwal-led party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals.

Chadha announced on Friday that exercising the provisions of the Constitution, more than two-thirds of the AAP MPs in Rajya Sabha have merged with the BJP.

He said seven MPs signed the document, which was submitted to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and he personally handed over the signed documents.

(With PTI inputs)