BJP president Nitin Nabin (second, right) welcomes Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, others into BJP

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan has officially accepted the merger of seven AAP MPs with the BJP – taking the ruling party’s strength to 113 in the 245-member Upper House.After Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Swati Maliwal, Vikramjit Sahni and Rajinder Gupta left the party, AAP’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has now reduced to three. RS website shows MPs as part of BJP.On Monday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the Chairman has accepted the merger of seven AAP MPs with BJP. “Welcome to the nation-building NDA under the visionary leadership of PM Modi and goodbye to the ‘tukde-tukde’ India alliance,” he said.However, AAP MP Sanjay Singh – who had written to Radhakrishnan on Sunday demanding disqualification of MPs under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution – in another letter on Monday sought clarification from the RS general secretary on on what basis the change in AAP’s party status (number of MPs) in the RS records was made.If this is not made clear, the AAP will approach the court over this “unilateral decision”, Singh said. This was done “without the prior information or consent of AAP or its leader in the House”, he said.In his Monday letter, Singh said any arbitrary change in the party’s status without following due process would have “serious consequences” on the rights of the party and its members. He demanded an investigation.Meanwhile, a section of legal experts highlighted the inability of the 10th Schedule to prevent political defection when the scale of “merger” is achieved. The “merger” exception sub-paragraph 2 under paragraph 4 of the Schedule stipulates that such merger is valid if at least two-thirds of the legislature party agrees to it.On his decision to leave AAP, Chadha alleged in a video message on Monday that the work environment in AAP has become ‘toxic’. It has got stuck in the hands of some corrupt and compromised people, who work for personal gains, he claimed.Congress’s Jairam Ramesh said the only surprise in the Chairman’s decision was that it “took so long”. “Till recently, there were questions over the integrity of the BJP and claimed to have evidence, but now all that has been forgotten. The ED was conducting some raids till recently, but one can bet that they will stop now,” he said. “Kamal has become Lotus”.