Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 2: In the backdrop of seven of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) 10 members of the Rajya Sabha switching over to the BJP giving rise to speculations of large-scale defection of the party members of the Punjab Assembly, the AAP government headed by chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday won a vote of confidence in the House re-establishing its stability.
The apprehension of a likely fall of the Mann ministry lurked despite the AAP enjoying a massive majority with 94 members in the 117-member State Assembly, while 16 MLAs belonged to the Congress and the BJP has just two members, three from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), one from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one independent.
The confidence motion received support from all the 88 AAP MLAs present in the House, while two party MLAs were abroad and two were in jail, and two are in hospital. Mann said the AAP’s support base remains intact and will translate into an even bigger mandate in 2027.
Mr Mann emphasised that negative news and rumours were circulating, claiming that members of the AAP are defecting and were creating confusion among the general public. “All speculations have been put to rest today regarding all those who were saying that 65 or 40 MLAs of AAP are going away,” he said.
The Mann government, however, received flaks from the opposition, particularly the BJP, for registering two police complaints against its rebel RS member Sandeep Pathak, one of the seven MPs to defect to the BJP, underlining the move as “vendetta politics.”
Pathak left his official residence in New Delhi on Saturday, at a time he is likely to face arrest after two First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered against him in Punjab. The cases have been filed for non-bailable offences. Visuals showed security being increased outside Pathak’s official residence, while another video showed him exiting the house from the back door, sitting in a car and being driven off. Sources said the AAP rebel’s phone is turned off and he has moved to an undisclosed location, as the BJP ropes in its legal cell to secure relief for him.
Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney were the AAP Rajya Sabha MPs who announced their exit from the party on April 24, alleging that the party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Except Maliwal, the other six represent Punjab in the Upper House.
Since seven out of 10 AAP Rajya Sabha MPs have jumped ship together with a strength of two-thirds, none of them is expected to attract disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, known as the anti-defection law.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has announced that he will meet President Droupadi Murmu on May 5 to raise the issue of what he described as “illegal” and “unlawful defection” while asserting that such “actions amount to a betrayal of the people’s mandate.”
The Punjab police filed the two FIRs under non-bailable Sections against Sandeep Pathak. The BJP on Saturday alleged that the FIRs were a “planned conspiracy” to distract people from Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s alleged “drunk state” during the proceedings of the State Assembly on May 1. The national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said it was “vendetta” by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who, Mr Poonawalla alleged, was misusing the Punjab Police to settle political scores.
“This (the lodging of FIRs) is a calculated attempt to divert public attention from the controversy surrounding Chief Minister Mann’s alleged appearance in an inebriated condition during the Punjab Assembly session,” State BJP president Sunil Jakhar said, addressing a press conference in Chandigarh.
He would meet the Punjab Governor soon and apprise him of the matter, Mr Jakhar said. “A delegation will submit detailed facts to the Governor to ensure transparency in the matter and prompt necessary action,” he said. During the special session on Friday, the House witnessed a sharp exchange of words between Mr Mann and Congress MLAs, even as Congress members staged a walkout, demanding an Alco meter, and dope testing of the Chief Minister and all other legislators.
Earlier, on April 30, the Punjab Pollution Control Board raided a Trident Group unit in Dhaula, soon after the company’s chairman emeritus and Rajya Sabha MP Rajinder Gupta defected to the BJP. The Trident Group has since challenged the raid in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. These developments have provided political ammunition to Opposition parties in the State, including the BJP, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and the Congress, in their efforts to corner the AAP, with allegations that the AAP’s actions amounted to politically motivated targeting of MPs who had switched to the BJP.
“The real face of the AAP is exposed — a party that claims to stand for clean politics but thrives on selective morality and convenience,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Congress’s Partap Singh Bajwa, said. “The case of Sandeep Pathak is not about justice, it reeks of internal fallout within a system built on compromise. If the allegations against him are true, then the bigger question is — why were these actions ignored, tolerated, or quietly buried when he was a trusted insider?” Mr Bajwa said.
“For years, Mr Pathak had been projected as a pillar of the AAP,” Mr Bajwa said. “Today, the same man is being targeted. What changed — truth or convenience? If wrongdoing occurred, it didn’t happen in isolation. It happened within a system, under leadership, and with implicit or explicit approval. So, why are those at the top untouched, while a former insider is singled out? This isn’t accountability, it looks like a vendetta. This is the politics of the so-called ‘revolutionaries’ — not reform, but replacement of one opaque system with another,” the Congress leader said.
“Those who had fallen out with the AAP were being selectively targeted,” senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said. “Sandeep Pathak was once a trusted aide of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, a key power centre. If he was wrong, then he was following his bosses, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann. Then, who was in collusion with him, and why are they not being booked now? After shifting loyalties, FIRs under non-bailable sections point to possible vendetta politics. From influence to investigation, the shift raises serious questions,” Mr Majithia said in a post on social media platform X.
