Chandigarh, Apr 24 (PTI) Opposition parties in Punjab said the defection of seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs to the BJP on Friday exposes a "deep-rooted crisis within the party's political structure and leadership" and the people have lost faith in it.
Parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress and the BJP said the development has laid bare the true character of AAP and "the crisis is not ideological but rooted in a struggle for control over Punjab's resources and public money."
Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak on Friday announced that they, along with five other AAP MPs, were joining the BJP.
The development has rendered a severe blow to the AAP, which was eyeing a return to power after the Punjab assembly elections expected early next year.
State BJP president Sunil Jakhar welcomed all the MPs who chose "at the right time" to leave AAP's "sinking ship" and join the BJP.
"Due to AAP's poor governance, corruption, and lack of law and order, the people of Punjab have already lost faith in the party. After the party abandoned public interest, even well-meaning individuals are being compelled to leave it," Jakhar claimed on X.
Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the exodus of MPs was a long time in the making.
"AAP came to power on the promise of changing the system, but the party itself got embroiled in corruption and scams. First, its founding members left the AAP. Now leaders like Sandeep Pathak and Raghav Chadha, who were the architects of AAP in Punjab, have also quit the party," Majithia said, claiming that a large number of AAP legislators were soon to join the BJP.
"The beginning will be made from Jalandhar and Ludhiana. A situation may come when AAP may become a minority government and fall," he said.
Holding the AAP responsible for this state of affairs, Majithia asked why the chief minister had bestowed Rajya Sabha seats on "outsiders".
Another SAD leader, Daljit Singh Cheema, said, "The large-scale defection of Rajya Sabha members exposes a deep-rooted crisis within the AAP's political structure and leadership. This is not an isolated incident. It reflects a systemic failure of trust, internal democracy, and ideological coherence. Arvind Kejriwal can no longer evade accountability."
Cheema said Kejriwal, as the architect of the party's centralised decision-making, must take moral responsibility and step down as party chief.
He added that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has clearly lost the moral authority to govern Punjab.
"When a party's own MPs abandon it in such numbers, it signals a complete disconnect between the leadership and the cadre. Punjab cannot be reduced to an experimental laboratory for political experiments. People here deserve stability, credibility, and leadership rooted in accountability, not opportunism," he said.
Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, said the split within the AAP has laid bare the party's true character, asserting that the crisis is not ideological but rooted in a struggle for control over Punjab's resources and public money.
Bajwa said the developments confirmed long-standing concerns that AAP's politics in Punjab was driven less by governance and more by internal competition for access to the state exchequer.
"What is unfolding today is not a clash of principles but a conflict over power, patronage, and money," he alleged.
Calling out contradictions within the AAP, Bajwa said it was ironic that while Chadha claimed he could not remain party to AAP's wrongdoing, Mann has alleged that Chadha and others left because they were not allowed to indulge in corruption.
"When both sides are accusing each other of corruption, the truth becomes self-evident. This was never about ideology. It has always been about money and the systematic loot of Punjab's public exchequer," Bajwa alleged.
The BJP played its own role in the "trading of people's mandate", he said.
Central investigative agencies were used to unearth details of alleged ill-gotten wealth, but instead of ensuring that justice prevails, such information appeared to have been leveraged to pressure and politically co-opt individuals into the BJP's fold, Bajwa alleged, adding, "This raises serious questions about the misuse of institutions meant to uphold the law."
Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the defection of seven AAP MPs to the BJP will not make any difference as none of them had any base in the state.
He said it is not surprising that the AAP MPs joined the BJP, as the AAP is devoid of any ideology and its legislators and parliamentarians do not have any ideological commitments.
"Today it is just seven MPs, tomorrow it may be 50 legislators who may desert the AAP," he said, adding that everyone knows how the AAP distributed Rajya Sabha and assembly tickets.
About AAP's Rajya Sabha seats in particular, he said these were mainly given to big industrialists and businessmen "who helped the AAP in multiple ways" while party workers and volunteers were ignored.
Citing the example of MP Ashok Mittal who recently faced ED raids, Warring said it is now normal for people to join the BJP to avoid inquiry or investigation.
Drawing comparisons between the Congress and the AAP, he said that while the AAP chose "moneybags" who eventually deserted it, the Congress has always chosen party workers, as seen in the recent nominations from Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.
In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress fielded a district president, while in Haryana it chose a trade union leader, he said.
Citing another example, Warring said that former Chhattisgarh chief minister and general secretary in charge of Punjab, Bhupesh Bhagel, was harassed and intimidated and his son was jailed, but they remained firmly committed to the Congress ideology.
State BJP working president Ashwani Sharma said Kejriwal took votes from Punjabis, but "ran the state through remote control from Delhi. He did not fulfil his commitments. AAP betrayed the people of Punjab."
"With Arvind Kejriwal's autocratic and dictatorial style, his party leaders are feeling stifled. It is not one member who has left; if two-thirds of MPs leave, then you can imagine what the situation in that party is," he said.