President nod to 20 AAP MLAs’ disqualification
OFFICE OF PROFIT Delhi stares at minipoll, Kejriwal govt to challenge decision NEW DELHI:
Delhi is staring at a mini-election with President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday accepting the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify 20 legislators of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party for holding office of profit.
The disqualification poses a danger to the Kejriwal government that has decided to challenge the decision in the court. The AAP still has 46 MLAs, way above the majority mark of 36 in the 70-member House.
“In the light of the opinion expressed by the Election Commission (EC)... the 20 members of the Delhi legislative assembly have been disqualified,” a notification issued by the law ministry quoted the President as saying.
All eyes will now be on the Delhi high court that will on Monday take up a petition by the nowsafeguard disqualified six MLAs after refusing them interim relief against disqualification on Friday.
Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai termed the disqualification as unfortunate and said the party would use all the legal possibilities to get it cancelled.
The elections to the 20 seats will have to be held within six months. “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,” party spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said.
For the AAP it was a fight to democracy and protect constitutional institutions from decimation, he added.
The President’s decision was on expected lines as the poll panel’s recommendation – communicated to Kovind on Friday – is binding on him.
“The appointment of the respondent MLAs as parliamentary secretaries by the GNCTD (government of national capital territory of Delhi) bypasses and frustrates the objective sought to be achieved by Section 15(1)(a) of the GNCTD Act, 1991 and is also against the principle of legislative oversight of the government which is the basic tenet of parliamentary form of democracy,” the EC said in its exhaustive recommendation to the President.
The controversy dates back to the weeks after the party won a majority in the Delhi assembly and appointed the lawmakers as parliament secretaries in March, 2015.