In 2022, Raghav Chadha Tried To Close The Door On Defections. 4 Years On, He Walked Out Through It

Last Updated:April 27, 2026, 08:22 IST

Under the current law (the Tenth Schedule), a two-thirds majority of legislators in a party can break away and merge with another party without facing disqualification

The dramatic exit of Raghav Chadha and six other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MPs has triggered a political and legal debate not just about defections, but also about a reform Chadha himself once proposed.

At the heart of the controversy is a paradox: had Chadha’s own Bill to tighten anti-defection rules been passed, the very move he led may not have been possible.

The Proposal

According to The Indian Express, Raghav Chadha had introduced a private member’s Bill in 2022 seeking to raise the threshold for a “legal split" from two-thirds to three-fourths of a party’s legislators.

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Under the current law (the Tenth Schedule), a two-thirds majority of legislators in a party can break away and merge with another party without facing disqualification. Over time, this exception, which was originally meant to allow genuine political realignments, has often been used to engineer large-scale defections while technically staying within the law.

In practical terms, in a House where AAP had 10 MPs, Chadha needed seven MPs (two-thirds) to defect safely, which he achieved. But under his own proposal, he would have needed at least eight MPs, possibly making the move far more difficult.

The Exit

Last week, Chadha, along with six other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, announced that they were leaving the party and merging with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This was not framed as an individual defection but as a group merger, which is crucial under the law.

AAP had 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. As seven moved together, crossing the two-thirds mark, it allowed them to claim protection under the anti-defection law.

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Legal experts say this was a calculated move, designed to fit squarely within the constitutional framework, given that if Chadha had left alone, he would have lost his seat. But now, leaving in a bloc helps him keep it.

What The Law Says

India’s anti-defection law in the Tenth Schedule was meant to prevent political horse-trading. However, it has a key exception: A legislator is disqualified if they switch parties but not disqualified if two-thirds of the legislature party merges with another party.

This is codified in Paragraph 4 of the law. Even more crucial in the law is a “deeming provision", which means if two-thirds agree, it is legally treated as a party merger, even if the original party hasn’t merged.

According to Outlook, the law was designed (via the 1985 amendment) to stop defections driven by power or office. But in practice, it creates a paradox where individual defection is punished but mass defection is protected. As one analysis notes, the law ends up rewarding coordinated exits over individual dissent.

Why Chadha Shifted

While the legal route made the move possible, the political triggers came from within. News18 had reported about the growing rift within the AAP leadership, which ultimately led to Chadha’s removal from the post of Deputy Leader of Rajya Sabha earlier this month, replacing him with Punjab MP Ashok Mittal. Ironically, Mittal was part of the bloc that quit the Arvind Kejriwal-led party and joined hands with the BJP.

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As Chadha claimed that the party was “moving on the wrong path" and blamed corruption as one of the reasons for its exit from Delhi, the AAP alleged pressure tactics and inducements, reiterating its claims of the BJP using ‘Operation Lotus’ to poach leaders. The BJP, however, denied any wrongdoing and framed the exits as a voluntary political realignment.

Why AAP’s Challenge May Not Work

AAP has sought disqualification of the MPs but faces a legal hurdle: The two-thirds rule has already been met and experts say this makes disqualification unlikely.

However, according to The Times of India, there are grey areas still under debate: Does merger require approval of the original party? Can MPs in just one House claim a merger? These questions are still legally unsettled.

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