Watch: After Prez disqualifies 20 MLAs, Cong claims BJP and EC 'helped AAP by delaying decision'

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

A notification issued by the law ministry quoted the president as saying that in the light of the opinion expressed by the Election Commission (EC), the 20 members of the Delhi legislative assembly have been disqualified.

The AAP MLAs were appointed parliamentary secretaries and their appointment was described as them holding offices of profit by a petitioner.

However, Ajay Maken, Delhi Chief of Indian National Congress claimed that AAP had been ‘helped by BJP and EC’. He told ANI: “AAP has been helped by BJP & EC by delaying the decision for over 3 weeks. If decision would have come before 22nd Dec, these 20 MLAs would've been disqualified & couldn't have voted for RS elections.”

AAP has been helped by BJP & EC by delaying the decision for over 3 weeks. If decision would have come before 22nd Dec, these 20 MLAs would've been disqualified & couldn't have voted for RS elections: Ajay Maken, Congress on disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs by EC #OfficeOfProfit pic.twitter.com/pl9emUpXSW

— ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2018

Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken had filed an objection to nomination of AAP's Rajya Sabha candidate N D Gupta for allegedly holding an office of profit.

In his objection filed with the retuning officer, Maken claimed that Gupta is "currently holding the office of a Trustee of the National Pension System Trust. He was appointed on March 30".

Gupta, along with two other Rajya Sabha candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party, Sanjay Singh and Sushil Gupta, had filed nomination papers on January 4. The scrutiny of the nominations is today."N D Gupta's nomination is liable to be rejected under Section 36 of Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 read with Article 102 of the Constitution," Maken claimed.

Meanwhile, the AAP said that Maken was trying to gain "cheap publicity" through "frivolous" objections as the law does not forbid trustees from contesting. 

In a blow to the AAP, the EC had on Friday asked the President to disqualify its 20 MLAs.

"...Having considered the matter in the light of the opinion expressed by the Election Commission, I, Ram Nath Kovind, president of India, in exercise of the powers...do here hold that the aforesaid 20 members of the Delhi legislative assembly stand disqualified from being members of the said assembly," the notification said.

All the 20 AAP MLAs had moved the Delhi High Court challenging the EC's recommendation but Justice Rekha Palli had refused to pass any interim order. 

Among the list are several prominent AAP leaders including Delhi cabinet minister Kailash Gahlot, who is also a close confidant of Arvind Kejriwal. The MLA from Najafgarh is the Transport Minister.

The other big names in the list are Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba and Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri both of whom have been with Kejriwal since 2011 Indian Against Corruption movement. Laxmi Nagar MLA Nitin Tyagi who is close to Deputy CM Sisodia and prominent Poorvanchali leader Sanjeev Jha are also on the list.

During the brief hearing, the judge questioned the conduct of the MLAs before the ECI and said they did appear before the poll panel taking shield of the fact that their pleas were pending in the high court.

Justice Rekha Palli also directed the counsel for the Election Commission (EC) to take instructions as to whether a final order of disqualification has been passed by it and if the same has been forwarded to the President.

"At this stage, I am not inclined to pass any interim order. It is deemed appropriate for the respondent to find whether a final order has been passed by them and whether the same has been sent to the Honourable President," the judge said fixing the next date of hearing to January 22.

The six AAP MLAs who had moved the court are Kailash Gehlot, Sharad Kumar, Madanlal, Nitin Tyagi, Rajesh Gupta and Somdutt. They had sought to be heard by the poll panel.

Appearing for the EC, its counsel Amit Sharma informed the court that he has no information about the order in question and so he cannot make any submissions or representation at this moment.

The AAP claimed to be "victimised" in the wake of the Election Commission's recommendation to disqualify its 20 MLAs for holding offices of profit, and asserted that it was "not afraid of elections".

AAP Delhi unit chief Gopal Rail alleged that the poll panel failed to give the party a hearing before sending its recommendations to President Ram Nath Kovind.

"It is an undemocratic step. They are taking revenge from people of Delhi, the government and Chief Minister of Delhi" he said.

The AAP leader said the appointment of parliamentary secretaries had come up in 11 states, but only AAP was being targeted.

"This is double standard. Doesn't the constitution apply to all? We are being victimised. It is worse than British Raj," he said.

The case of disqualification of AAP MLAs is up for hearing at the Delhi High Court on Monday.

"We will go to all democratic fora seeking justice," he said.

Underlining the AAP's connect with people, Rai said, "We are not afraid of elections. People decide our destiny".

In a blow to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, the Election Commission had yesterday asked the president to disqualify 20 of its MLAs for holding offices of profit, setting the stage for their ouster from the assembly.

The Commission said the party MLAs, by occupying the post of parliamentary secretaries between March 13, 2015 and September 8, 2016, held offices of profit, and were liable to be disqualified as legislators, highly-placed sources said.

With inputs from PTI