EC recommends disqualification of 20 AAP lawmakers

A new political tremor has erupted in the politics of Delhi with the ruling party AAP, the direct victim of this tremor and the BJP and the Congress becoming more and more offensive. The election commission of India has declared all the 20 MLAs of AAP as illegal and unconstitutional for arbitrarily and illegally holding the posts of the Parliamentary secretaries and has recommended their case for disqualification to the President.

It may be recalled that the honourable high court has already in its verdict of 12th September 2012 had declared the posts of parliamentary secretaries of 20 AAP lawmakers as illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional terming the posts as office of comfort or profits as in the constitution there is no such provision of the posts of parliamenatry secretaries and that too to the tune of 21 in a state assembly of merely seventy MLAs.

The election commision has send its recommendations to the President of India for final approval asking for theirabrupt disqualification as MLAs and as per the constitutional experts the president usually gives his or her consent on such recommendations of EC, particularly when there is no stay in the matter from any court of law in the country.

Meanwhile the Delhi high court has also refused the petitions of 6 MLAs who’d approached the court for relief today. The court said since the lawmakers have not been officially declared unlawful and unconstitutional, except recommended to the president there is no case to be addmitted for now. Hence is turned away.

However, the actual position in the matter would be known by Monday and as such, till then things have been kept in abeyance. Political analysts say that in case the president acts on the advice of the Election Commision and dittoes’ the EC’s decision of disqualification of the assembly membership of 20 AAP lawmakers, the strength of the AAP in Delhi assembly would recede to 46.

Presently the AAP has the strength of 66 MLAs in Delhi Assembly. The chief minister Arvind Kejrival and the AAP leaders are badly furious and annoyed over this decision terming it a conspiracy to destabilise the Delhi government by misusing the power and position of the election commision. They emphatically argue that when not a single MLA out of the 20 parliamentary secretaries have not taken a single rupee as a salary that how can they be termed as holding the office of profit whereas the Congress and BJP charge them of incessant corruption and misusing of the official machinery under the guise of holding the post of parliamentary secretaries.

The chief minister Arvind Kejrival said this is the result of his government’s pro people actions and being honest on all counts. When you do good works honestly for the welfare and well being of the poor, down troddens and the people of the lowest ebb of the society you are met with such conspiraorial actions by the ruling party at the centre and the PM says Arvind Kejrival.

Kejrival said: there are always bottlenecks in the way of honesty.
SUNIL NEGI