New Delhi, 27 April  

Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan on Monday officially accepted the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal's party in the Upper House to three.

After this transition, the BJP's strength in the Upper Househas increased to 113.

Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta are the seven MPs who merged with the BJP. The Rajya Sabha website now shows that the seven MPs are part of the BJP list of members.

Of the total seven MPs representing Punjab in Rajya Sabha, six are with the BJP and only one remains with AAP.

In Delhi, of the total three MPs two now remain with the AAP and one with the BJP. Sanjay Singh and N D Gupta (both AAP) and Swati Maliwal (BJP) represent Delhi in Rajya Sabha. The seven MPs petitioned the Rajya Sabha Chairman on Friday to be treated as BJP MPs after the merger, sources said, adding the petition has been accepted.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju welcomed the seven MPs into the NDA, and said they have bid goodbye to the "Tukde-Tukde INDI Alliance".

"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 and Vikramjit Singh Sahney ji are Members of BJP Parliamentary Party," he said on X.

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

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 sevenparty 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.