Following a dramatic split in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), where seven Rajya Sabha MPs joined the BJP on Friday, six of them from Punjab, one key Punjab face chose not to follow. Balbir Singh Seechewal, the Padma Shri awardee, environmentalist, and spiritual leader from Jalandhar chose to remain with the party.
Seechewal told local media that he had been directly approached before the defection. "Vikram Sahney called. He said they were forming an independent group, and many had signed on. He asked me to sign too," Seechewal told at least two web channels on Saturday.
"I said no. I had no desire for that," he said.
According to him, Sahney mentioned that several signatories included “the university one,” referring to Ashok Kumar Mittal, founder of Lovely Professional University, who stood alongside Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak.
Recalling an earlier interaction during the April 16-18 Parliament session, Seechewal said Chadha’s group had invited him for tea.
“Unhaan ne keha, 'Baba ji, tuhanu aapan chaa piaiye, baith ke,” he told Punjab Tak. ("They said, 'Baba ji, let's have some tea and sit together.'")
He declined, saying: "Asi keha, ‘pee lo tusi’.”
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Seechewal noted this was the first such invitation, adding that no one had ever directly discussed defection with him.
"No, no one did - if someone tells you otherwise, they are lying,” he asserted.
The Chadha-led group has claimed they left AAP because it had “strayed from its principles,” with Chadha alleging that its leadership had become “corrupt and compromised.”
“Because both of them had full state-level responsibility in Punjab. Sandeep Pathak looked after the party, and on the administrative side, for about two to three years, it was Raghav Chadha,” Seechewal said.
“At that time, he was the supremo of Punjab, and all the eyes of the administration - especially the officers - were on House No 50,” he further stated.
When asked about the word ‘gaddar’ (traitor) being spray-painted on the homes and offices of defecting MPs across Punjab on Saturday, Seechewal refused to use such language. Quoting Gurbani - “Nanak phikka boliye, tan man phikka hoye” - he said that speaking harshly only hardens one’s own mind and body.
On ‘Operation Lotus’ - AAP’s term for what it alleges was a BJP-engineered split, Seechewal said, "Every political party thinks of its own benefit.”
He also clarified that he had received no approach or pressure from the BJP.
“If someone had come to us, we would have just passed it forward - that's why they don't,” he told The Indian Express.
Asked if he had any message for those who defected, he said, “Now that they have gone, may Waheguru keep them in Chardi Kala (high spirits).”
Seechewal further remarked that the defecting group “never considered me their colleague” and suggested that his style of functioning made them uncomfortable.
“My presence in the Rajya Sabha, my questions on Punjab's issues, and my work on the ground did not suit many of them,” he told Indian Express.
He also claimed that he was never allowed to speak on bills in Parliament by the party’s own deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha which is an indirect reference to Chadha, who was removed from that post on April 2.