Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann met President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on Tuesday, seeking the “recall” of seven Rajya Sabha members, who recently quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mann, who travelled to the national capital along with his party MLAs, submitted a representation signed by them to the President, to press their demand for action against six of the seven MPs elected from Punjab.
While the chief minister met Murmu alone at Rashtrapati Bhavan, his ministers and MLAs were stopped near Rail Bhavan.
Seven MPs, constituting two-thirds of the AAP’s total strength of 10 in the Upper House, joined the BJP on April 24. They comprised Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney (all from Punjab), and Swati Maliwal (Delhi).
After the meeting, Mann said he apprised the President of the “murder of democracy” by the party’s seven Rajya Sabha members, who got together, formed a separate group and then merged with another party. “This is unconstitutional. Only two-third of a party can split and merge with another party. How can six to seven MPs from one House of Parliament claim a split, form a separate party and then merge with another party? This kind of arbitrariness cannot be allowed,” he said.
Mann also pointed out that the BJP has two MLAs in the Punjab assembly, and six Rajya Sabha members from the state. “How can this happen? Is this not a mockery of the Constitution?” he told the media, while demanding a provision in the Constitution for the “recall” of elected MPs.
‘Joining BJP no suraksha kavach’
The AAP leader also said the defectors should have first resigned from the Rajya Sabha and then joined the party (BJP) “jinse inka ab dil mila hai.” “Punjab will not tolerate this kind of betrayal,” he said.
Responding to Chadha’s allegations of vendetta politics and misuse of official machinery to target some of his fellow MPs, Mann said that if anyone had done something wrong or if there were complaints, action would be taken. He said that joining the BJP did not guarantee them a “suraksha kavach (shield) or immunity from FIRs or legal action.”
“The BJP-led central government inducts tainted people and then withdraws cases against them. But this will not happen in Punjab. In future also, if there are any complaints or report of wrongdoing, FIRs will be filed and action taken. Their entry into the BJP does not provide them protection from cases,” he said.
Earlier, Mann, accompanied by most of the AAP MLAs, left for Delhi from his official residence in Chandigarh early in the morning. While the chief minister travelled in his official vehicle, the ministers and MLAs followed him in three buses. They carried placards having photographs of the rebel MPs, calling them “traitors of Punjab”.
Since there is no provision in the Constitution for the recall of an elected MP, Mann’s move to parade his MLAs in Delhi is being widely viewed as a “show of strength” and an attempt to display the party’s “unity” in the state amid speculation about the government’s stability following the defections.
Will be their next target: Chadha
Chadha along with three other MPs, Pathak, Gupta and Mittal, met the President and accused the AAP-led Punjab government of vendetta politics and misusing the state machinery to target some of them after they joined the BJP.
They submitted a representation alleging “harassment” and “politically motivated” action against them following their exit from AAP.
Chadha accused the AAP of behaving less like a political party and more like an “obsessed, jilted ex”, who is unable to move on. “According to sources, I will be their next target. The Punjab government hired agencies to threaten us on social media,” he alleged.
In a post after the meeting, Chadha said, “Honoured to meet the President this morning, along with three fellow MPs. We conveyed how the AAP’s Punjab government is misusing state machinery to target us for exercising our constitutional rights, after two-thirds of MPs chose to merge with the BJP.”
He added that the party that once cried vendetta was now practising its most toxic form. “We take strength from the President’s assurance that constitutional rights and democratic choices must be respected. The AAP today behaves less like a political party and more like an obsessed, jilted ex — bitter, vindictive, and unable to move on,” he wrote.
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