After several days of speculation about his future in the Aam Aadmi Party, Raghav Chadha announced that, along with him, a total of seven Rajya Sabha MPs of the AAP had “exercising the provisions of the Constitution of India,…merged with the BJP.” This “merger” is the latest in a series of such actions in recent years taken by legislators from relatively smaller parties such as the BSP in Rajasthan and the AIMIM in Bihar, to the more notorious Shiv Sena and NCP “mergers” in Maharashtra. Given this, the AAP is likely to file disqualification petitions against the MPs, and the chairperson is likely to take time to decide on those petitions. However, the fundamental question — whether the “merger” is valid or not — will continue to plague the Indian polity. Lack of regulations in the internal functioning of political parties is the root of the problem. Solving this could help strike a balance between dissent within the party and constitutional morality.…