New Delhi, April 25 -- Raghav Chadha and six other Rajya Sabha MPs - making up two-thirds of the Aam Aadmi Party's strength in the Upper House - have quit the party and would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a separate faction. The move allows them to avoid disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which permits such shifts in the event of a merger of two third of a party members.

The last time it happened was in 2019 when four of six Rajya Sabha members of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) defected to the BJP.

They were former Union Minister YS Chowdary, CM Ramesh, TG Venkatesh and Garikapati Mohan Rao. They had then passed a resolution according to the 10th Schedule which allowed them to move to the BJP without los...