AAP Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh on Sunday submitted a petition to the Chairman of the Upper House, C.P. Radhakrishnan, demanding the disqualification of his party’s seven parliamentarians who have announced their “merger” with the BJP.
On Friday, six AAP MPs from Punjab and one from Delhi, led by AAP co-founder Raghav Chadha, switched to the BJP, claiming that the AAP had “deviated from its founding principles”.
The petition accessed by The Telegraph explains that the AAP’s constitution had rules for mergers, which were not followed in this case and that neither the party’s government in Punjab nor its apex-executive body — the political affairs committee — had approved of the “merger”. The 19-page petition, filed under para 6(1) of the Constitution’s Tenth Schedule that restricts defections of elected representatives, cites several court judgments to make a case for ending the membership of these parliamentarians.
“In the current case, this principle is clearly applicable since Raghav Chadha and the alleged other six MPs have committed not only an act of disloyalty to the party, but more importantly committed a breach of faith with the electorate whose votes were secured on the basis of the ideological and electoral promises made by the AAP...,” the petition states.
“That the argument made by Raghav Chadha and the alleged other 6 MPs is prima facie contrary to the provisions under Schedule 10 of the Indian Constitution. The Exception in Para 4 of the 10th Schedule is not an exception to protect an immoral and anti-party activity so as to defeat the mandate of the people. The exception of Para 4 of the 10th Schedule is aligned to protect the collective interest as recognised by the
Constitution of a political party, and not to serve the selfish interests of a few individuals. That it is not a coincidence that the AAP MP Ashok Kumar Mittal, impleaded herein, was subject to ED raids in the recent past, has now joined the BJP in the lure of office or other similar considerations,” it added.
An exemption is granted for mergers of parties in Para 4 of the Tenth Schedule to legislators who merge into a party, or become members of a new party formed by the merger, or refuse to merge and remain a separate group.
A condition imposed under sub-para (2) of Para 4 is: “For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph, the merger of the original political party of a member of a House shall be deemed to have taken place if, and only if, not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislature party concerned have agreed to such merger.”
The AAP’s petition concludes by saying: “There can be no case where individuals separately without the collective recognition of political party through its constitution and other bodies seek to join another party through the process of a merger. Such an act of disloyalty and fraud cannot be given the colour of law, the act of Raghav Chadha and these alleged other six members of joining a principal Opposition party cannot be recognised as a merger of the 10th Schedule but squarely falls as an act of disqualification....
“It is therefore humbly prayed that the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha be pleased to disqualify the Respondents as members of Rajya Sabha in terms of Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.”
Singh told reporters that he had sent the petition to the Chairman after consulting all experts and taking the opinion of senior advocate Kapil Sibal.
“This action is necessary because when a leader is elected from a party, he is later broken using the misuse of the ED, CBI and other investigative agencies, and the BJP, which is adept at this game, inducts him into its party.... It is also a betrayal and treachery against the people of Punjab. Along with this, it is a betrayal of the Constitution and an open mockery of it,” he said.
Since Saturday, the AAP has been protesting outside the homes of the defecting MPs in Punjab and Chadha’s home in Mumbai, where cops on Sunday detained party workers.