The lotus absorbs all: How the BJP keeps swelling at the expense of its rivals
A curious piece of political theatre unfolded in the Indian capital on April 24th. At a joint press conference, three Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha members—Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak and Ashok Mittal—announced that they and four colleagues were merging with the Bharatiya Janata Party. A letter signed by all seven, including Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikram Sahney and Swati Maliwal, had been delivered that morning to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, complete with the requisite documents. Only the trio faced the cameras; the others remained publicly silent. AAP leaders, led by Sanjay Singh, denounced the move as “Operation Lotus”, the ruling…