NEW DELHI: The departure of Raghav Chadha and six other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MPs has elicited a notable response from social activist Anna Hazare, who stated on Friday that these leaders might not have left if the party had continued on the “right” path.
“Everyone has the right to hold an opinion in a democracy. They (Chadha and others) must have faced some trouble, which is why they left,” Hazare told reporters in Ahilyanagar district, Maharashtra, as reported by the news agency PTI. He emphasized that it is the party’s fault for not maintaining the correct direction, adding, “Had that party followed the right way, they would not have left.”
Hazare reiterated that the exiting members likely encountered challenges within the organization. “There must be some reason for their leaving AAP. In a democracy, every person has a view about where to stay and where to leave,” he remarked.
Known for his significant role in India’s anti-corruption movement and rural development initiatives, Hazare noted that Raghav Chadha had joined AAP during this movement in 2011-12.
On Friday, several AAP Rajya Sabha MPs resigned and opted to align themselves with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Chadha claimed that nearly two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members had quit and would now function as a separate entity.
During a press conference at the Constitution Club in Delhi, he stated, “We have decided that we, the two-thirds of the members belonging to AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP.”
Chadha characterized this development as a collective decision by the majority of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs to exit the party, calling himself the “right man in the wrong party.”
The reported exodus includes several notable figures, such as Swati Maliwal, cricketer-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Rajinder Gupta, and Vikramjit Singh Sahney, marking a significant shift in AAP’s parliamentary representation.
