India, April 24 -- Raghav Chadha made arguably the biggest move of his political career so far on Friday, April 24, as he walked in for a press conference at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi, and left a BJP man. But only after trumping the AAP, the party he'd co-founded, on numbers; and leaving his ex-boss Arvind Kejriwal in a big bind ahead of assembly elections in Punjab.

Flanked by fellow Rajya Sabha MPs Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Kumar Mittal, Chadha did what many had largely seen coming for months. But in a manner that was a minor political earthquake.

He announced that seven of AAP's 10 Rajya Sabha MPs - two-thirds of the party's Upper House strength - were merging with the Centre's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in...