New Delhi, April 24 -- In a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, and Ashok Mittal, resigned from the party on Friday.

Chadha, who was recently removed as the deputy leader of AAP in the Upper House of Parliament and was replaced by Mittal, announced that two-thirds of AAP's Rajya Sabha MPs had decided to leave the party and would merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a separate faction. He also mentioned that party MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal were among those quitting AAP.

"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 Constitution of India and merg...