Almighty gave us 67 seats, keeping in mind 20 MLAs will be disqualified: Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today attacked the Centre after 20 AAP MLAs were disqualified for holding offices of profit, saying his government was being harassed.

Addressing a gathering in the Najafgarh area here, the chief minister said that when someone is on the path of truth, that person has to face a lot of problems.

Without naming the BJP, he said, "We are saving every single penny of the government, but there are a lot of problems coming our way. They are trying to harass us by all means. They have imposed false cases on us and our MLAs."

"They also got a CBI raid done on my office, but they found my four mufflers only after a 24-hour search. Our MLAs were arrested," he said.

The lieutenant governor had called 400 files of the Delhi government pertaining to the decisions taken in the last two years, but they did not find anything against us, Kejriwal said.

"When they did not find anything against us, they today disqualified our 20 MLAs," he said.

Kejriwal also said that the almighty would have given the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 67 seats keeping in mind that 20 AAP MLAs would be disqualified after three years.

Later, he tweeted, "There was some logic when God gave us 67 seats. The Almighty stood behind us in our every step. Otherwise we would have been nothing... Just don't stray away from the path of truth."

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot is all set to lose his portfolio as he was among the 20 AAP MLAs who have been disqualified by President Ram Nath Kovind in the office of profit case.

"When you are on the path of truth, you have to face a lot problems. But as I always say, when you are on the path of truth, the almighty will help you because you are not working for yourself.

"In democracy, the people are above all. At the end of the day, justice will prevail," he said.

Kovind today accepted the Election Commission's (EC) recommendation to disqualify 20 MLAs of Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party for holding offices of profit.

Senior AAP leader Ashutosh said the president's order to disqualify AAP MLAs is "unconstitutional" and "dangerous for democracy."

"The President, Sri Ram Nath Kovind should himself contemplate if he has enhanced his stature in history as the President of the Republic of India by signing to disqualify AAP MLAs?" he tweeted.

Saurab Bharadwaj, chief spokesperson of the party's Delhi unit said for the AAP, it is not a matter confined to its 20 MLAs, the fight is for safeguarding the democracy and protecting constitutional institutions from decimation.

Hitting out at the Election Commission, he said the chief election commissioner and the election commissioners are expected to behave in an independent and impartial manner and not as "political stooges of their masters who appoint them".

"The Election Commission is a constitutional institution of continuity and not a retired members club of a group of political appointees," Bharadwaj said.

"A first reading of the Narendra Modi government appointed Election Commission's biased opinion and subsequent notification issued by the BJP's central government to hastily disqualify 20 elected Delhi MLAs shows the constitutional authorities today are behaving like handmaidens of the central government," he alleged.

The Election Commission (EC) had on Friday recommended to Kovind that the 20 MLAs were liable for disqualification for holding offices of profit between March 13, 2015, and September 8, 2016.

A government notification today said the president has disqualified 20 AAP MLAs for holding office of profit.

Citing a poll panel order, Bharadwaj said in June last year, the then Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and Election Commissioner A K Joti had said the commission will intimate the next date of hearing to all the parties concerned in the present proceedings in due course.

However, the date of next hearing was not conveyed and the poll panel arrived at the decision before hearing them out, he claimed.

"It is beyond any reasonable understanding and justification as to how the immediate successors of Dr (Nasim) Zaidi decided to overturn this written order and chose not to provide any hearing to the 20 MLAs after March 2017," Bharadwaj said.

"The AAP cannot be cowed down by such tactics of the Narendra Modi government, which has been proven time and again during the last three years.

"The party has complete faith in the judiciary and will challenge this biased, illegal and illogical order of the Modi government in courts of law," Bharadwaj said.

AAP MLAs were appointed parliamentary secretaries and this was described by petitioner Prashant Patel as them holding offices of profit.

Giving its opinion to the president on the issue, the EC had said the MLAs, by occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries had held offices of profit, and were liable to be disqualified as legislators.

Parliamentary Secretaries assist ministers with their work. AAP insisted that despite holding the office these MLAs did not take any salaries or perks.

The President is bound by the recommendation of the Commission. Under the rules, petitions to the President seeking disqualification of lawmakers are referred to the EC. The poll panel takes a decision and sends its recommendation to the Rashtrapati Bhavan which is accepted.

In its opinion to the president, the EC had said, "Whether or not the individual Parliamentary Secretaries had actually derived the benefits or participated in executive functions of the government is of no relevance" as the Supreme Court in the Jaya Bachchan case had laid down that if the post falls under office of profit, the disqualification is imminent.

The poll panel had said that it is basing its opinion on judicial pronouncements of the past, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act and the Constitution.

The 20 MLAs disqualified include, Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka), Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Avtar Singh (Kalkaji), Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh) -- who is also a minister -- Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), Praveen Kumar (Jangpura).

Others are: Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Sanjeev Jha (Burari), Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar), Sharad Kumar (Narela), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Sukhbir Singh (Mundka), Vijendar Garg (Rajinder Nagar) and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).

The AAP had also approached the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on EC's recommendation. The court has listed the case for a hearing on Monday.

On Friday, the Delhi High Court had refused to pass any interim order of protection to AAP MLAs from being disqualified.

Madanlal, one of the 20 disqualified MLAs, said all hopes now hinge on the judiciary and the party was expecting some relief tomorrow.

If AAP fails to get reprieve from the courts, Delhi will have bypolls for the 20 seats. The only technical aspect was that now the Delhi Assembly Speaker will have to notify the 20 vacancies for the EC to announce the bypolls.

Once the vacancies are announced by the Assembly, the AAP's strength would go down to 46 from 66 in the 70-member House. However, it will continue to have a majority to run the state.

Alka Lamba, who is among the 20 AAP MLAs disqualified, said the decision was "painful" and the president should have heard them out before arriving at any conclusion.

The petition was made to disqualify 21 MLAs, but one had resigned a few months back.