Defection row: Mann, Chadha to meet Prez today
Chandigarh, May 5 -- Chief minister Bhagwant Mann and rebel Rajya Sabha members led by Raghav Chadha will separately meet President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday over the latter's switch from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Seven members of Parliament, constituting two-thirds of the AAP's total strength of 10 in the upper house, had joined the BJP on April 24. They included Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney (all from Punjab), and Swati Maliwal (Delhi). Mann is scheduled to meet the President at 12 noon, where he plans to make a case for the "recall" of these Rajya Sabha members.
Mann had sought a collective audience for all AAP MLAs from Punjab, but the President's office invited only him. Later, the CM declared that he would travel to Rashtrapati Bhavan with his fellow AAP legislators, who would wait outside while he presents the "concerns" of the people of the state regarding the RS members' switch to the President.
The party has asked all its MLAs to reach the chief minister's residence in Chandigarh early on Tuesday morning to head together towards Delhi.
Before Mann's meeting with the President, Chadha and at least three other RS members are also slated to meet Murmu at 10.40 am to apprise her of the Punjab government's alleged misuse of official machinery for "political vendetta" and the targeting of some of them. HTC...
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