AAP’s crisis of confidence

The defection of seven Rajya Sabha MPs led by Raghav Chadha has plunged the Aam Aadmi Party into arguably its gravest crisis since its inception.

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Their swift embrace by the Bharatiya Janata Party raises more questions than it answers, not least about the choreography behind this move. This was no spontaneous revolt born of ideological awakening. Chadha’s quiet pruning of anti-BJP rhetoric from his public platforms and his conspicuous restraint during Arvind Kejriwals incarceration suggest a carefully staged exit. By waiting to muster numbers, the rebels attempted to cloak defection as a “split”, hoping to sidestep the anti-defection law. But without a clear split in the party or a recognised group in Parliament, their legal position looks weak. In their eagerness to appear clever, Chadha and his colleagues may have been, to borrow the phrase, too clever by half.