Political crisis in Aam Aadmi Party: EC disqualifies 20 AAP MLAs for holding ‘Office of Proft’

In a major setback to Aam Aadmi Party and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Election Commission today has disqualified 20 MLAs of the party for allegedly holding the ‘office of profit’. The poll commission has sent recommendation to President.

If the recommendation is cleared by the President, the disqualification would mean that AAP’s strength in Delhi Assembly will reduce to 47 from the current 67.

The controversy over the “office of profit” started after a 30-year-old lawyer Prashant Patel filed an application in 2015 to the President’s office, questioning the appointment of AAP MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.

This is on this application that Congress had filed a petition in Election Commission in 2016 to seek disqualification of 21 AAP legislators.

Subsequently, the proceedings were dropped against on MLA Jarnail Singh after he resigned as the Rajouri Garden MLA to contest the Punjab Assembly polls in February 2017.

Arvind Kejriwal has appointed MLA in March 2015 and his government passed amendment to the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1997, iin June 2015 to exempt the post of parliamentary secretary from the definition of office of profit with retrospective effect.

AAP had argued that this post did not qualify as an office of profit as there is no monetary benefit attached to it. The party’s efforts, however, got a jolt when President Pranab Mukherjee declined approval to the proposed Amendment in June 2016 and the Delhi High Court set aside the order appointing the MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.

Reacting on the matter, opposition parties Congress and BJP have demanded immediate resignation of Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister of Delhi on moral ground.

While AAP said: “This must be the first ever recommendation in EC history where a recommendation has been sent without even hearing the main matter on merits.”

Here’s the list of disqualified 20 AAP MLAs:-

1. Praveen Kumar was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Education Minister

2. Sharad Kumar was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Revenue Minister

3. Adarsh Shastri was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Information and Technology Minister

4. Madan Lal was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Vigilance Minister

5. Shiv Charan Goel was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Finance Minister

6. Sanjeev Jha was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Transport Minister

7. Sarita Singh was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Employment Minister

8. Naresh Yadav was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Labour Minister

9. Rajesh Gupta was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Health Minister

10. Rajesh Rishi was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Health Minister

11. Anil Kumar Bajpai was appointed as Parliamentar ..

12. Som Dutt was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Industries Minister

13. Avtar Singh Kalka as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Gurudwara elections

14. Vijender Garg Vijay was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of PWD

15. Jarnail Singh (Rajauri Garden) was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Power

16. Kailash Gahlot was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Law

17. Alka Lamba was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Tourism

18. Manoj Kumar was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Food and Civil Supplies

19. Nitin Tyagi was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Women and Child and Social Welfare

20. Sukhvir Singh was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Languages and Welfare of SC/ST/OBC respectively