Mumbai: Sanjay Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (UBT), launched a scathing attack on Saturday against Raghav Chadha and two other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He called the saffron party “shameless” and compared it to the mythical demon Bakasura, whose hunger is never satiated.
Raut stated that the defectors had joined a “party of goons and corrupt people” and described them as “Page 3 leaders,” adding that they would soon realize they had entered “hell.” Addressing a press conference, Raut said, “Everyone knows the politics the BJP is playing. Their politics is a single word, we call it shameless. They have no shame. Because these people, like Raghav Chadha, who was also our friend, until yesterday, openly said that the BJP is a party of goons, a party of thugs and corrupt people. All of them have joined the party of goons and corrupt people in wholesale. There's a demon in the Mahabharata. His name is Bakasura. His hunger is never satiated, his stomach is never full.” He added, “BJP has become a party of Bakasuras. They eat anything. Seven people like Raghav Chadha have joined that hell party. We have no regrets about that. They will soon realize what hell is like. The opposition will never weaken. These six or seven people who have left are not public figures. They are Page 3 leaders on social media, at most.”
Background of the Defection
The comments came after the Aam Aadmi Party suffered a major setback as its Rajya Sabha MPs, including Raghav Chadha—who had earlier been removed as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha—joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday. Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Chadha formalized a split that had been building for weeks, announcing that two-thirds of the party’s Upper House members would merge with the BJP.
The three MPs — Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, and Ashok Mittal — announced a split from the Aam Aadmi Party and later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of party leader Nitin Nabin, who welcomed their decision.
Reactions from Political Parties
The move triggered sharp reactions from AAP leaders, while the BJP welcomed the development. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the decision was “natural” and used the development to attack AAP leadership. BJP national president Nitin Nabin also welcomed the Rajya Sabha MPs at the party headquarters in Delhi after their induction. Taking to X, he extended his greetings to all seven Members of Parliament and urged them to work towards the goal of “Viksit Bharat by 2047.”
(With agency inputs)
