New Delhi: In a significant setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), eight of its MLAs resigned and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, just days before the Delhi Assembly elections, media reports said.

The legislators who switched allegiance are Vandana Gaur (Palam), Rohit Mehraulia (Trilokpuri), Girish Soni (Madipur), Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Rajesh Rishi (Uttam Nagar), BS Joon (Bijwasan), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), and Pawan Sharma (Adarsh Nagar), reported India Today.

Notably, seven of them had been denied party tickets for the upcoming elections and were reportedly unhappy with AAP’s decision.

Meanwhile, Mehrauli MLA Naresh Yadav, who was initially renominated, returned his ticket after allegations in the Punjab Quran sacrilege case were confirmed.

AAP replaced him with Mahender Chaudhary, prompting Yadav to resign from the party on Friday, according to the report.

Following their departure, the MLAs submitted their resignation letters to the Assembly Speaker, relinquishing their positions in the House.

The BJP welcomed the former AAP leaders in the presence of its national vice-president Baijayant Panda and Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva.

Calling it a "historic" moment, Panda remarked that the leaders had freed themselves from "AAPda" (a play on the Hindi word for disaster), expressing confidence that Delhi would also rid itself of AAP after the February 5 elections.

Palam MLA Bhawna Gaur, in her resignation letter to AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, stated that she was leaving as she had lost trust in both him and the party.

Kasturba Nagar legislator Madan Lal echoed the same sentiment, submitting a similar resignation letter.

AAP’s candidate list for the Delhi elections includes Mukesh Goel (Adarsh Nagar), Pravin Kumar (Janakpuri), Surendra Bhardwaj (Bijwasan), Joginder Solanki (Palam), Ramesh Pehlwan (Kasturba Nagar), and Anjana Parcha (Trilokpuri).

As Arvind Kejriwal’s party aims for a third consecutive term in Delhi, it faces a tough contest from the BJP, which has been out of power in the capital for 27 years. The Congress remains the third major contender in the race.