President Kovind approves EC’s recommendation to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs

January 21, 2018 74 Views No Comment

President Ram Nath Kovind approved a recommendation by the Election Commission (EC) to oust the AAP MLAs from the legislative assembly, paving the way for by-elections in Delhi.

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President Ram Nath Kovind has approved a recommendation by the Election Commission to oust 20 AAP MLAs from the Delhi assembly

The disqualified MLAs were accused of holding offices of profit while occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries

20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators were on Sunday disqualified from the Delhi Assembly for allegedly holding offices of profit.

The AAP hinted that it may approach the judiciary in the matter, reported ANI.

“We had hoped to go to the President asking him to give us a chance to present ourselves. Now we received this news. AAP will knock the doors of HC and even SC if the need be,” said Delhi minister Gopal Rai.

This position was reiterated by Alka Lamba, one of the disqualified MLAs.

The Congress reacted to the development by alleging that the AAP had received help from the BJP and the Election Commission.

“AAP has been helped by BJP and Election Commission by delaying the decision for over three weeks. If the decision had come before December 22, these 20 MLAs would’ve been disqualified and couldn’t have voted for the Rajya Sabha elections,” said Congress leader Ajay Maken.

The BJP, however, said that the very fact that the Rajya Sabha nominations were unhindered showed that there was no pressure on the EC.

“The fact that their Rajya Sabha nomination happened means EC was working at its own pace and there was no pressure that Arvind Kejriwal seems to have alleged. These are constitutional bodies whose mandate is to obey law,” said BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi.

On Friday, the EC had written to the President asking him to disqualify the 20 AAP MLAs on the grounds that they held offices of profit while occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries between March 13, 2015 and September 8, 2016.

The MLAs who have been axed are Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gehlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar and Nitin Tyagi.

The development does not threaten the AAP government in Delhi as it has 66 MLAs in the 70-member assembly. Still, the BJP and the Congress have demanded Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation on moral grounds.

Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had earlier said the AAP will also go to court on the matter as they were not given an opportunity by the EC to explain their stand in the case. He also charged that the EC had not followed due process while recommending the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs and urged the President Kovind to hear the party’s view too.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said there was a political conspiracy against the party, alleging that the “BJP through its agents seriously compromises the prestige of the EC just to divert the attention of the nation from its all round failures.”

Source: Times of India