‘Other MLAs will stay outside’: Punjab chief minister to meet President Murmu to discuss seven AAP RS MPs joining BJP

New Delhi: After seven Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MPs defected, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann A meeting with President Draupadi Murmu is scheduled for May 5 to “uphold the people’s mandate”.Mann sought time to meet party MPs to urge the “ousting” of the seven BJP MPs who merged with the BJP.Mann said in a social media post onHe said he would arrive at the Rashtrapati Bhavan with party legislators from the state and they would be waiting outside.Mann said, “It is our duty to uphold the mission and democratic values ​​of the people of Punjab. I am happy to inform you that the honorable President Drupadi Murmu Ji has agreed to hold a meeting on May 5 at 12 noon. While we requested the availability of all MLAs, I alone received an invitation to the meeting.”He added: “I will arrive at the Rashtrapati Bhavan with my MPs. My MPs will stay outside and I will fully express the voice of Punjab and the people on behalf of everyone before Chairman Ji. The next strategy will be shared after the meeting. My sincere thanks to Chairman Ji for giving us his precious time.”However, the law does not provide for the removal of legislators.On April 24, the Aam Aadmi Party was rocked when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs – Raghav ChadhaAshok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal quit and merged with the BJP, claiming the party had strayed from its principles, values ​​and core ethics. Six of the seven MPs who quit AAP are from Punjab.“We have decided that we, two-thirds of the members of the Lok Sabha, will implement the provisions of the Indian Constitution and merge with the BJP,” Raghav Chadha told a press conference.The fallout comes after weeks of escalating tensions between Chadha and the party leadership. Earlier this month, he was sacked as deputy leader of the UP in the Lok Sabha and accused by senior leaders of engaging in “soft PR” instead of actively confronting the Center and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.His growing distance from the party has become increasingly apparent over the past year and Chadha was abroad when Kejriwal was arrested in March 2024 in the GST policy case and has remained abroad during his nearly six-month imprisonment.Senior party leaders also claimed that Chadha has been reluctant to raise issues in line with AAP’s political stance. They point out that he refused to sign a notice calling for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and failed to participate in a strike by the opposition in Parliament.However, Chadha denied the allegations, calling them “white lies” and asked the party to provide evidence.Union Chairman CP Radhakrishnan on Monday formally accepted the merger of MPs with the Bharatiya Janata Party, reducing Arvind Kejriwal’s party’s number of seats in the upper house to three.As per the updated list, the Congress has 29 members while the Trinamool Congress has 13 seats. DMK has 8 members, followed by YSR Congress Party with 7 members. Biju Janata Dal has 6 members and AIADMK has 5 members. Janata Dal (United), Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party have 4 members each.