India, April 25 -- Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday sought an appointment with President Draupadi Murmu to formally demand the recall of the state's Rajya Sabha members who defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Accompanied by a delegation of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, Mann intends to present the AAP's stance against the seven parliamentarians who switched sides on Friday. The chief minister's move marks a significant escalation in the confrontation between the AAP and the BJP following the exodus of Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal, and Vikramjit Sahney.

The defectors, led by Chadha and Pathak, claimed their departure was rooted in the party straying from its foundat...