The AAP’s crisis underlines that in order to step up to its challenge, internal and external, the Opposition needs to first recognise it. 3 min read Apr 29, 2026 06:05 AM IST First published on: Apr 29, 2026 at 06:05 AM IST The defection of seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs to the BJP — including Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Swati Maliwal — is part of three intertwined stories. The first is the meteoric rise and steady decline of the AAP itself, marked by successes but also by a steady erosion of the idealism it projected when it dramatically broke through the high entry barriers of the polity to become a viable party. Soon after it made its political debut in 2013, the party began to shed prominent members. Among other things, these departures pointed to the extreme centralisation of power within the AAP, and the weakness of its organisational structures and processes.…