'Lotus has become Lootus': Congress' dig after RS Chairman accepts AAP MPs merger with BJP

With Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan accepting the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP, the Congress on Monday said the decision is not at all surprising, and the legislators crossing over was both a surgical strike as well as pre-emptive action, as the ED had been targeting some of them till recently.

With Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan accepting the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP, the Congress on Monday said the decision is not at all surprising, and the legislators' crossing over was both a ''surgical strike as well as pre-emptive action,'' as the ED had been targeting some of them till recently. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the decision of the chairman of the Rajya Sabha to accept the merger is not at all surprising; in fact, the only surprise is that it took so long and was not formally accepted over the weekend. ''Small mercies make up Indian democracy now,'' Ramesh said on X. ''The BJP has hailed these MPs just as the latter have embraced their new home warmly. Till very recently, the BJP had serious questions on their integrity and claimed to have solid evidence on them but all that is now conveniently forgotten. The ED was raiding some of these MPs until recently but one can bet that those will also come to a stop now,'' he said. ''And the ED raids that may well have taken place against some others will of course no longer happen. It is therefore both a surgical strike and a pre-emptive action. Lotus has become Lootus,'' Ramesh said. ''Operation Lotus'' is a term used by opposition parties to allege that the BJP is poaching their legislators. Radhakrishnan on Monday officially accepted the merger of AAP MPs - Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Vikramjit Sahney, Swati Maliwal, and Rajinder Gupta - with the BJP, reducing the strength of Arvind Kejriwal's party in the Upper House to three. After this transition, the BJP's strength in the Upper House has increased to 113. The Rajya Sabha website now shows that the seven MPs are part of the BJP list of members.