NEW DELHI: The exit of Raghav Chadha and six other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MPs drew a sharp reaction from social activist Anna Hazare on Friday, who said the leaders may not have left if the party had stayed on the “right” path.“Everyone has the right to hold an opinion in a democracy. They (Chadha and others) must have faced some trouble, which is why they left,” Hazare told reporters in Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra, news agency PTI reported.
“It is their fault. Had that party followed the right way, they would not have left”, he added.He reiterated that those who exited the party must have faced difficulties within the organisation. “Had the party gone in the right direction, they would not have quit the party,” he said, adding, “There must be some or the other reason (for their leaving AAP). In a democracy, every person has a view about where to stay and leave.”Hazare, a veteran social activist is known for his role in India’s anti-corruption movement and rural development work. It was during the anti-corruption movement led by him in 2011-12 that Raghav Chadha joined the AAP.Several AAP Rajya Sabha MPs left the party on Friday and decided to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Chadha also claimed that nearly two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha members had quit and would function as a separate faction.As per the announcement, Chadha said the group of MPs had exercised constitutional provisions to merge with the BJP. “We have decided that we, the 2/3rd members belonging to the AAP in Rajya Sabha, exercise the provisions of the Constitution of India and merge ourselves with the BJP,” he said at the press conference at the Constitution Club in Delhi.The development comes amid what Chadha described as a collective decision by a majority of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs to exit the party. He also referred to himself as the “right man in the wrong party” while announcing the move.The reported exodus includes several prominent names such as Swati Maliwal, cricketer-turned-Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Rajinder Gupta and Vikramjit Singh Sahney, among others, marking a significant political development within AAP’s parliamentary wing.