India, April 24 -- Days after he had a public falling out with the Aam Aadmi Party, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha left the party he co-founded, and "merged" with the Centre's ruling BJP. The verb 'merged' is important here for a key reason. Because, had he quit alone, he would have lost his Rajya Sabha membership under the anti-defection law.

Under the Constitution's Tenth Schedule, a member of the Rajya Sabha is exempt from anti-defection disqualification only if two-thirds of his/her party's legislators together agree to merge with another party.

Chadha underlined this in his post on X: "We, two-thirds of the Members of Parliament belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Rajya Sabha, will exercise the provisions of the Constitutio...