A day after its seven Rajya Sabha MPs, including six elected from Punjab, defected to the BJP, a rattled Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday started a “public shaming” campaign against the defectors, besides making efforts towards getting all of them disqualified.As AAP leaders and workers sprayed ‘gaddar’ (traitor) with paint on the boundary walls of the residences and official premises of MPs Ashok Mittal, Rajinder Gupta and Harbhajan Singh in Ludhiana and Jalandhar, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann sought time from President Droupadi Murmu to “present facts regarding the defections and to seek the recall of the MPs”. A letter in this regard had already been sent by the Chief Minister’s Office to the President, said officials.It is learnt that CM Mann had sought time for himself and AAP MLAs so that they could together meet the President “at the earliest”. Since MLAs elect Rajya Sabha members, the CM wanted to take the electorate along when he made the demand for recalling the MPs who defected to BJP on Friday, said an AAP leader.The move is expected to achieve two goals for AAP. First, it will be a show of strength as well as a “loyalty test” in the wake of claims by rebel MP Raghav Chadha regarding 63 Punjab MLAs being in touch with him. Second, the demand for recall may be legally invalid, but it will project AAP as taking its “traitors” head-on.Raghav, Mittal, Harbhajan, Gupta, Sandeep Pathak and Vikramjit Singh Sahney represent Punjab in the Upper House. Gupta was elected as an MP last year when Sanjeev Arora vacated his seat following his foray into electoral politics and his elevation as a Punjab minister, the rest five were chosen in 2022. The seventh defector, Swati Maliwal, was elected from Delhi.Though the recall move may not be legally tenable in this case since over two-thirds of MPs had merged themselves as a unit with the BJP, the strategy could suit AAP for political optics, said an analyst.In a sarcastic post on X, Mann wrote in Punjabi, “Ginger, garlic, cumin, fenugreek powder, red chilli, black pepper and coriander–these seven things together make a dish taste great, but on their own cannot become a dish.” The post led to an online debate, with his opponents rebutting the claim and naming several condiments and spices that could be cooked independently.Meanwhile, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Saturday claimed the party’s three MPs in the Lok Sabha and all Punjab legislators were standing behind the Mann government.Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Sanjay said he would write to the Rajya Sabha Chairman seeking disqualification of the MPs who had joined the BJP under the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law).On whether the party knew about the split, he claimed that moments after central agencies raided Mittal, it became evident that they would join the BJP. Sanjay also claimed that ever since the anti-sacrilege Bill was passed in Punjab, it became evident that people were happy with the policies of the Mann government, and that a “rattled BJP would plan conspiracies”.Sanjay maintained the anti-defection law clearly stated that no form of split was permissible in the Assembly, Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha. “It has no legal recognition and this has also been clearly established in the Shiv Sena case,” he said. The MP claimed that the Tenth Schedule clearly provided that any kind of split, even if it involved a two-thirds majority, had no legal validity. “Therefore, the defection of these seven Rajya Sabha MPs from AAP is illegal, incorrect, unconstitutional and against parliamentary rules,” he said, adding that he would submit a letter to the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Vice-President, citing all these rules and demanding termination of the membership of the seven MPs.