Eight AAP legislators join BJP ahead of Delhi Assembly Elections 2025

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In a significant boost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just four days before the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025, eight outgoing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators, along with a large number of supporters, joined the JP Nadda-headed party on Saturday, news agency PTI reported. The Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) had resigned from the primary membership of AAP on Friday, citing reasons such as corruption and the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's departure from its core ideology.

All the eight legislators had been denied election tickets by AAP for this upcoming election.

The MLAs who joined BJP are Vandana Gaur (Palam), Rohit Mehraulia (Trilokpuri), Girish Soni (Madipur), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Uttam Nagar), B S Joon (Bijwasan), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli) and Pawan Sharma (Adarsh Nagar), PTI reported.

After resigning from AAP, they stated that they had also submitted their resignation letters to the assembly speaker, thereby relinquishing their membership of the House.

The former AAP legislators explained that while being denied election tickets is common in politics, they were "deeply hurt" to see that the tickets were not allocated to dedicated party workers but were instead "sold" to the "highest bidders", according to a statement issued by the Delhi BJP.

In response, AAP said in a statement that it has several capable and well-educated candidates aspiring for election tickets. Some incumbent MLAs were denied tickets this time, leading to "dissatisfaction", it added.

"For the past few weeks, BJP members have been constantly approaching AAP MLAs who did not receive tickets this time, luring them with various offers - promising positions, power, and incentives," the party said.

Former AAP legislator Vijender Garg, along with several other leaders from the Kejriwal-led party, including Palam Councillor Ajay Rai, also joined BJP in the presence of Baijayant Panda, the national vice-president and in-charge of the BJP's Delhi unit, and state president Virendra Sachdeva, PTI reported.

Welcoming the MLAs and leaders to BJP, Panda described it as a "historic" day, stating that they had now rid themselves of "AAPda (disaster)", and expressed hope that after the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025, the national capital would also be freed from the Kejriwal-led party.

"The people of Delhi had trusted AAP, but now, everyone is leaving the party because that trust has been broken," Panda remarked.

He reminded the new entrants that for BJP, the nation comes first, the party second, and personal interests last, urging them to work together towards this goal.

AAP responded by saying that Kejriwal's true supporters would stand by the party until their last breath, as they had not entered politics for positions such as MLAs, councillors, or ministers.

Under Kejriwal's leadership, AAP had given election tickets to ordinary individuals from humble backgrounds, making them MLAs. This, the party claimed, was only possible within AAP, while elsewhere, it would take a lifetime just to become a councillor.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls on February 5, with the results set to be declared three days later.

(With PTI inputs)