Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, along with AAP legislators, left for Delhi on Tuesday morning to meet President Droupadi Murmu over the recent defection of seven Rajya Sabha MPs to the BJP. On April 24, the Aam Aadmi Party faced a major setback when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs—Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney, and Swati Maliwal—resigned and merged with the BJP, claiming the party had drifted away from its founding principles, values, and ethics. Six of these MPs were from Punjab.

Mann is expected to meet the President at 12 noon at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. Before leaving for Delhi, he said that all AAP MLAs remain fully united with the party and that only he has been granted an appointment with the President. He also described the President as the constitutional guardian of the country.

Ahead of the visit, ministers and MLAs assembled at the Chief Minister’s residence in the morning, carrying placards reading “Punjab Mann De Naal” and “Punjab’s Traitors.” They later travelled to Delhi in buses. The Chief Minister had earlier requested time to meet the President along with party MLAs to demand the recall of the defected MPs, but only he was allotted a meeting slot. Cabinet Minister Lal Chand Kataruchak confirmed that the MLAs would accompany Mann and raise the demand for recalling the MPs.

Mann had stated that he would strongly represent Punjab’s concerns before the President, emphasizing the need to protect the people’s mandate and democratic values. He also plans to present a copy of the confidence motion passed by the Punjab Assembly on May 1. Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan on Monday approved the merger of the MPs with the BJP, reducing AAP’s strength in the Upper House to three members.