New Delhi: In a major blow to the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi, the Election Commission (EC) on Friday recommended disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs for holding ‘office of profit,’ according to media reports.
The recommendation has been sent to President Ramnath Kovind for his nod.
The President is bound to go by the recommendation of the Commission. In cases where petitions are made seeking disqualification of lawmakers, the President sends a reference to the EC which decides on the case by sending back its opinion.
Following the shocking move, the AAP has approached the Delhi High Court against EC’s recommendation to disqualify its MLAs.
In the present case, the petition was made to disqualify 21 MLAs, but one had resigned a few months back.
The EC, however, said that the disqualification is sub-judice, and it will not comment on what recommendation has been given to the President.
A petition filed by lawyer Prashant Patel sought the disqualification of the MLAs on the grounds that they were holding an ‘office of profit’ as parliamentary secretaries.
In 2015, soon after AAP swept the Delhi elections, Kejriwal had appointed 21 legislators as parliamentary secretaries.
This disqualification will lead to by-polls in Delhi.
The ruling AAP has a massive majority in the Delhi Assembly with 67 out of 70 seats.
This disqualification will not meddle with AAP’s position in the assembly, but is definitely a serious setback for the party.
The MLAs’ pleas that the case against them be dropped were rejected by the EC in June 2017.
Both Congress and BJP had been pushing the EC to order the disqualification.
Here’s the list of disqualified 20 AAP MLAs:
Praveen Kumar (Jangpura) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Education Minister
Sharad Kumar (Narela) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Revenue Minister
Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Information and Technology Minister
Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Vigilance Minister
Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Finance Minister
Sanjeev Jha (Burari) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Transport Minister
Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Employment Minister
Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Labour Minister
Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Health Minister
Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Health Minister
Anil Kumar Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Health Minister
Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Industries Minister
Avtar Singh (Kalkaji) as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Gurudwara elections
Vijender Garg (Rajinder Nagar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of PWD
Jarnail Singh (Rajouri Garden) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Power
Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Law
Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Tourism
Manoj Kumar (Kondli) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Food and Civil Supplies
Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Women and Child and Social Welfare
Sukhvir Singh (Mundka) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Languages and Welfare of SC/ST/OBC respectively.
(Agencies)
