Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday accused the Centre of enabling “unconstitutional” political defections and warned of resistance if similar attempts were made in the State, following a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi.Addressing reporters after the meeting, Mann said the recent move by seven Rajya Sabha members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) amounted to a violation of the Constitution.He said the delegation demanded cancellation of their membership, alleging that the MPs had “claimed to be a different party” before merging with the BJP.“If the Central government misuses its power in Punjab, we will take action,” Mann said, reacting to remarks by BJP leaders suggesting that Punjab could be the party’s next political target after its electoral success in West Bengal.In a pointed remark, the Chief Minister said, “Punjab is not a truck that anyone would take turns to drive. It is a State that has always stood first whenever the country has faced adversity.”He added that the BJP currently has only two MLAs in Punjab and warned that the number “could be zero” in the next election.In a post on X, Mann described the defections as a “murder of democracy” and accused the Centre of breaking parties through “unconstitutional means” and misusing investigative agencies such as the ED and the CBI. He alleged that such actions were part of a broader attempt to destabilise elected governments.“We have made it clear that the cheap tactics of ‘Operation Lotus’ in Punjab will never succeed. Our MLAs are the voice of millions of Punjabis, and Punjabis never tolerate betrayal,” he wrote, asserting that his government would “fight to the last breath” to protect the people’s mandate and constitutional values.The controversy follows a major setback for AAP on April 24, when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs — Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal — resigned from the party and merged with the BJP, citing a departure from AAP’s original principles and values. Six of the seven MPs were from Punjab.