Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar has accepted the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party MPs into the Bharatiya Janata Party, formally shifting the balance of power in the upper house of Parliament.

The move pushes BJP's strength in Rajya Sabha to 113 members. AAP, which held ten seats before the defections, is now left with just three MPs — a reduction sharp enough to strip the party of formal group recognition in the house, which typically requires a minimum member threshold.

What the Numbers Mean

In Rajya Sabha, a party or group needs at least five members to be recognized as a parliamentary party or group, unlocking privileges like dedicated speaking time, committee representation, and procedural rights. Falling to three members likely leaves AAP without those entitlements, significantly limiting its ability to participate formally in upper house proceedings.

For BJP, crossing 113 seats strengthens its position as the single largest party in Rajya Sabha, though it still falls short of a solo majority in the 245-seat house. The ruling National Democratic Alliance collectively holds a broader bloc, making this merger a consolidation rather than a majority shift.

The Political Context

The merger comes after AAP's poor performance in the February 2025 Delhi assembly elections, where the party lost power to BJP after more than a decade in government. That defeat weakened AAP's political standing nationally and appears to have accelerated internal defections at the parliamentary level.

Under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution — the anti-defection law — a merger is legally valid only if at least two-thirds of a party's legislative members in a house join another party. With seven of AAP's ten Rajya Sabha MPs crossing over, the two-thirds threshold is met, shielding the defecting MPs from disqualification.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman's acceptance of the merger is the formal trigger that makes it legally operative. Watch for whether AAP challenges the merger's validity or whether its remaining three MPs seek to align with another group to retain parliamentary privileges.