In a significant political development Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just days after facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid at his residence in Jalandhar.
The ED had conducted search operations at Mittal’s residence and other properties on April 15 and the search began early in the morning with a team arriving from Delhi and supported by Punjab officials. A police force was deployed outside the premises during the raid and sources indicated that preparations for the operation had been underway for nearly a week with a senior officials reportedly stationed in Jalandhar to oversee planning however no detailed official statement has been released so far and the investigation is ongoing.
Mittal who is also the founder and Chancellor of Lovely Professional University became a Rajya Sabha MP in 2022 and notably he was recently appointed Deputy Leader of AAP in the Rajya Sabha replacing Raghav Chadha after his removal from the post.
However in a dramatic turn of events on April 24 Mittal appeared alongside Chadha and Sandeep Pathak at a press conference in New Delhi announcing that two-thirds of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs where 7 out of 10 have decided to merge with the BJP.
Further developments are awaited as the situation continues to unfold.
