Chandigarh, April 25 -- The revolt by seven Rajya Sabha members led by Raghav Chadha, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has dealt a crippling blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of next year's Punjab assembly elections.

The defection by more than two-thirds of the AAP's 10 MPs in the upper house of Parliament - six of them from Punjab, includes Chadha, and Sandeep Pathak, both one-time close confidants of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. They were widely seen as the architects of the rookie party's spectacular showing in the 2022 assembly elections in Punjab. Kejriwal had praised the two young backroom strategists after the historic win, crediting them with crafting the election strategy and building the party organi...