India, April 26 -- Punjab's political landscape witnessed a dramatic shift on Friday after seven Rajya Sabha MPs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), triggering a fresh phase of instability and intensifying speculation that the tremors may soon reach the state Assembly.

The MPs-Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Swati Maliwal, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta and Vikramjit Singh Sawhney-announced a collective move to merge with the BJP, invoking provisions under the anti-defection framework that recognise a split backed by two-thirds of a legislative group as a merger rather than defection. The development has significantly weakened AAP's presence in the Rajya Sabha while strengthening t...