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Chadha's anti-defection bill and the 2026 AAP-to-BJP floor-crossing
Raghav Chadha introduced a Private Member Bill in August 2022 seeking stricter anti-defection laws to curb floor-crossing and horse-trading, including raising the two-thirds threshold and a six-year ban on defectors. The bill was never passed. On April 25, 2026, Chadha and six other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs switched to the BJP, a move enabled by the existing two-thirds threshold under the anti-defection law.
Why It Matters
The events illustrate how the mechanics of the anti-defection law shape party switches in Indian politics, and how proposed reforms to threshold rules remained unpassed even as defections occurred.
Timeline
2 Events
Chadha-led AAP Rajya Sabha MPs switch to BJP; defection enabled by two-thirds threshold
April 25, 2026
On April 25, 2026, Chadha led six AAP Rajya Sabha MPs in switching to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The move was made possible by the existing anti-defection law's two-thirds threshold, which requires at least two-thirds of a party's members in the House to defect to avoid disqualification. For AAP's 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, the threshold was seven, and Chadha along with six others met that number exactly. This defection occurred despite Chadha’s 2022 proposal to raise the threshold to three-fourths; the proposed eight-member threshold would have blocked this switch. The bill also included a six-year ban on contesting elections for defectors, but the bill was never passed.
Chadha introduces Private Member Bill to tighten anti-defection laws
August 2022
Raghav Chadha, as a newly elected AAP MP from Punjab, stood in the Rajya Sabha in August 2022 and introduced a Private Member Bill calling for stricter anti-defection laws. He spoke against what he described as nefarious floor crossing by legislators and urged tightening the Tenth Schedule to prevent horse-trading and erase a blot on democracy, arguing that the current law ends up facilitating defection. In his bill, Chadha proposed raising the defection threshold from two-thirds to three-fourths and barring defectors from contesting elections for six years; the bill was never passed.