00:03All right, on your screens, the moment has come, Raghav Chadha along with several other
00:11members of the Amadi party now joining the BJP, BJP president there Nitin Nabeen making
00:21that official. You see three people there, that is Ashok Kumar Mittal and also Dr. Sandeep
00:31Pathak. Shivani, just describe to us what's happening there at the moment. BJP has all
00:42reasons to smile, of course, today. They've pretty much decimated the Amadi party in at
00:48these Rajasabha numbers. So now, see, there's a lot of commotion, a lot of movement. Actually,
00:58it was quite a surprise. And today, it started as a silent day today because all the eyes
01:04are in West Bengal and all the other states that are seeing elections right now. But what
01:08happened around three, when Raghav Chadha was suddenly seen in a press conference that was
01:14called by the BJP and then making that big announcement of merging along with the six other
01:22MPs of the Rajasabha into the BJP. So here at the BJP headquarters, you can see right now Raghav
01:29Chadha along with other two MPs who have left the Amadi party, they are now joining the BJP.
01:35Nitin Nabeen, the president, has already welcomed them in the party. They have joined the party.
01:41There are other members who are also expected to be a part of the BJP because they've already
01:45announced that all the seven they have, they are merging with the BJP. So a merger means that
01:52all these seven will be a part of the BJP. A big number, a number that was thought well
01:58because it is the two-third of the total 10 of the Rajasabha MPs of the Amadmi party.
02:03Now, seven of them are a part of the BJP. So now, will there be a press conference
02:09from the BJP side? Will there be a welcome note or some kind of a statement? We are waiting for
02:16that. But right now at the BJP headquarters, it is in fact a big day with big buzz with Raghav
02:22Chadha here at the BJP headquarters along with Sandeep Patak Ashok Kumar Mittal. Tarun Chook,
02:27the senior member of the BJP, he welcomed along with other leaders. And they straightaway moved
02:32to Nitin Nabeen's room here at the BJP headquarters where the joining formalities are taking place right now.
02:38Now, Sonal. So indeed, a big shock, a big shocker for the Amadmi party. Reactions already flowing
02:44in. A big day or a big win, we can say, for the BJP where seven members of the Amadmi
02:51party
02:51from the Rajasabha are now a part of the BJP. The formalities already have been done.
02:57Aishwarya is also with us. Aishwarya, let me come to you. What a funny game politics is, no?
03:01One minute, one hour, you are the poster boy of Amadmi party. The other, you are having
03:08laddus and exchanging flowers with the BJP. That's what politics is, in this country at least.
03:15And I'm just, at this point, as shocked as I am to see these pictures, and as a journalist,
03:21as amused as I am to report on this, I'm just wondering and questioning, where are the others?
03:28And if there aren't others, how is this two-third number, seven happening?
03:33And how will this be taken by the Rajasabha chairman? I'm just doing a number calculation here.
03:43Well, you know, Sonal, if you are doing the number calculation, then it's pretty clear.
03:46Two-third, with this number, two-third, you can actually merge the party, and that is exactly
03:51what's happening at the moment. So now, the merger of Amadmi party with regards to these
03:55MPs has already happened. That is why you are saying all of them coming now, because what
04:00all of them actually meant when they came to the BJP is that this is not a sort of joining,
04:05joining, this is a merger, and that is exactly what Raghav Chandra also said.
04:08The first statement, the very first statement that he made almost two hours ago was that
04:12I am merging myself with the BJP. He did not use the word join. He used the word merge because
04:17it's the two-third. Out of ten, seven of them have already signed the letter. That letter
04:22already is with the Rajasabha chairperson. So that signing has already happened. That submission
04:27has already been done. So now this is a merger that we are seeing, and that's the reason why
04:32you are seeing the Amadmi party also now speaking about it. And this is a merger that we are
04:37seeing taking place, which is why even though he was being removed from his position, Raghav
04:41Chandra did not dare and join Bharti Janta party because that technically would have been
04:46joining. What we are seeing now, Sonal, is a merger that's happening.
04:50Ashwara, you know my next question, right? My next question will be, who is the Chanakya of this?
04:54Who made this happen? Was this initiated by Raghav Chandra and others in the Amadmi party? Or was
05:00this initiated in the BJP? A little too early to ask, I'm sure, but that's the dope all of us
05:05want
05:05to know on what really happened here. But can we talk a little bit for a minute about why these
05:12numbers and why these MPs are so important for the BJP?
05:21Well, you know, the clear answer lies in just one word, Sonal, and that's the state of Punjab.
05:26Because, see, let me tell you, BJP also knows this, and we also know this, that BJP does not
05:30have a homegrown, inbuilt face in the state of Punjab. They definitely need people who have a
05:35connect. The BJP has a little bit of a connect in the state of Punjab, but that level of high
05:40-level
05:40connect, that is needed, that is missing with regards to the Bharti Janata party. And the
05:44next state that they have been in, just imagine, you know, Sonal, just 24 hours ago, we saw
05:49the first phase of the Bengal elections getting over. The second phase is on the 29th. So, we
05:54are still in the thick of elections when we speak about the state of West Bengal. And we
05:58just heard Amit Shah also a couple of hours ago saying out of 152 in the first phase of West
06:02Bengal, they are winning 110. But now we are seeing them preparing for the next big election,
06:07that is the state of Punjab. So, all these things now have been very, very keenly looked
06:12at. And these are the faces, these are the names that have deep roots, deep connect in
06:17the state of Punjab, because of which we are seeing all of them now moving on and merging
06:22themselves with the BJP so now.
06:23I want to go back to the point on how big are these faces for BJP in Punjab. As we
06:29all
06:29know, Rajasabha is not the seed that goes to somebody who is a very big grassroot level
06:33leader, right? It goes to people who are influential, who have big pockets sometimes, or come from
06:39a great area of expertise, which is largely the spread that you see over here as well.
06:43Raghav Chadha comes from Delhi, of course, was sent to Punjab as this Punjabi boy to sort
06:49of do it. Last election onwards, he didn't really have a role to play. He does not have
06:53roots, so to say, in Punjab. The others also who are all the seven, if I can name them at
06:59the moment, they aren't big grassroot level leaders in Punjab. You know what I'm saying?
07:03They are big in terms of numbers, in terms of representation perhaps at the moment or
07:08the number game overall in Rajasabha for BJP. But they don't really have an impact on votes,
07:13don't you think?
07:18Well, Sonal, they are bigger than any names that the Bharatiya Janata Party has in the state
07:22of Punjab, aren't they? So they are bigger names, you know, bigger than the ones that BJP at the
07:27moment has.
07:28Fair point, fair point.
07:28So in that way, it definitely is a big win-win. And also, you know, yes, also Sonal, this is
07:35a way that
07:35we are seeing the BJP now decimating the Ahmadi Party slowly, chip by chip. You know, the castle
07:42that was built by Erwin Kirjival and his army, that castle now is being destroyed. Yes, that castle now is
07:50being destroyed from within because these are the people who are closest to the Ahmadi
07:53Party. And what will happen to the king if his most loyal soldiers actually turn against him?
07:59So that's the story that we are seeing unfolding in front of our eyes. So, and I don't know if
08:03Preeti is still here. I would have loved to get a perspective from her. Do we have Preeti?
08:08Okay, we have Shivani. Okay, Shivani has also covered Ahmadi Party fairly. So let me go to Shivani
08:13as well and understand this. Shivani, when you look at Ahmadi Party at the moment, you know,
08:18that big judgment that came from the courts which said that the case, the entire liquor
08:23scam was not even worthy of, you know, framing charges. That for me was the big revival of the
08:29Ahmadi Party or the Ahmadi Party 2.0 if one can really call it that, right? Because before that,
08:35where was Arvind Kejriwal? We didn't know. He was sometimes in Punjab, sometimes here. We had no idea
08:41what was really happening. And suddenly you saw all of them resurface. And we felt that, okay,
08:47now there seems to be a momentum building. Ahmadi Party seems to be getting its mojo back.
08:51But look where we are. One step back and two steps, you know, one step forward
08:56and two steps back for the Ahmadi Party in a matter of just two months.
09:03See, Sonal, I contradict here with you. It was not the revival of the Ahmadi Party
09:08as a whole when we see the bigger picture. It can be a revival or a relief that had come
09:12to
09:13Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister when he was behind the bars. And when he came out,
09:19we used to cover him all the time when he used to be out. And then when again he was
09:25in jail and
09:25several other leaders along with him, his right men, right hand men. But certainly something was
09:32brewing in Ahmadi Party. We've seen the episode of Swati Malewal. We've seen what was going on with
09:37Raghav Chadha since months and over a year, over a year now. The way he was being sidelined,
09:44non-participatory, non-reactive to what was happening within the party. So we've seen a
09:50lot happening in Ahmadi Party over the last few years. So certainly it was the relief that came
09:57to Arvind Kejriwal was not altogether a relief to the Ahmadi Party. And now it is actually clear,
10:03Sonal, because what has happened today is not a game that has turned the tide in a few days or
10:10a
10:10few months. It has been a long planned game that has happened here, which is being called as Operation
10:17Lotus by Ahmadi Party now. So certainly convincing seven MPs of Rajya Sabha, most of them coming from
10:25Punjab. So that's where we say that BJP plans ahead well in advance because, you know, next year is the
10:33time when Punjab is going to see the assembly elections. So they are already doing that planning
10:38while we all were looking at the West Bengal where the highest polling has taken place.
10:44Shivani, some political commentators and some within Ahmadi Party are already saying that it all started
10:51when Ashok Mittal had an ED raid recently. And that is where the entire brewing and the conversation
10:58started. They are calling it washing machine politics altogether. So we don't really know what
11:02happened behind the scenes. I don't know if we ever will. But for the moment, what you have on your
11:07screen right now. BJP has seven new entrants. BJP is up by seven numbers in the Rajya Sabha. Seven out
11:17of the
11:1710 members of the Ahmadi Party now have joined the BJP. So it's politics. One hour with the BJP,
11:25the other one hour with the Ahmadi Party, the other with the BJP. Well, that's the story.
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