Raghav Chadha appointed chairman of Committee on Petitions in Rajya Sabha days after joining BJP

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha chairman CP Radhakrishnan has reconstituted the Upper House’s Committee on Petitions, naming MP Raghav Chadha as the panel’s chairperson.After reconstituting the committee, Radhakrishnan, who is also the Vice President of India, nominated 10 Upper House members to the panel.“Raghav Chadha has been appointed Chairman of the Committee. The panel has been reconstituted by the Rajya Sabha Chairman with effect from May 20,” a Rajya Sabha notification said.Apart from Chadha, the committee includes Harsh Mahajan, Gulam Ali, Shambhu Sharan Patel, Mayankkumar Nayak, Masthan Rao Yadav Beedha, Jebi Mather Hisham, Subhasish Khuntia, Rwngwra Narzary, and Sandosh Kumar P.The development comes after Chadha and six other Rajya Sabha MPs switched allegiance from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The others who crossed over were Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Swati Maliwal, Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Rajinder Gupta, and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh.The defections reduced the AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha to just three members.In contrast, the BJP’s tally in the Upper House stood at 106 members earlier, while the BJP-led NDA had 141 MPs. Following the latest additions, these numbers have risen to 113 and 148, respectively. With more than 30 Rajya Sabha seats set to fall vacant by the end of the year, the BJP is hopeful of securing at least five more seats, bringing it closer to the two-thirds majority mark of 163.