The Electoral Commission of India has this Friday recommended that 20 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Delhi’s ruling party AAP be disqualified for holding the office of profit as Parliament Secretaries. This has come as a major setback to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that insists the recommendation was grounded on false allegations.
The Electoral Commission wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind, saying that by holding positions in government, the 20 AAP MLAs were guilty of holding an “office of profit”. According to Electoral Commission’s opinion, the legislators were unconstitutionally appointed as parliamentary secretaries to lend a hand to various Delhi government ministers.
Initially, the case was against 21 AAP MLAs, but has changed to 20 after Jarnail Singh, Rajouri Garden MLA, resigned to run in the Punjab Assembly elections against Parkash Singh Badal last year. The Electoral Commission’s opinion to disqualify these MLAs could force the national capital into a mini Assembly election. The possible disqualification will, however, not pose an immediate threat to the Kejriwal government – the AAP party won holds 65 seats in the house; even if the 20 MLAs are disqualified, MLA remains the ruling party over BJP.
The first reaction from AAP Party came from AAP spokesperson Nagendar Sharma who tweeted that the EC recommendation must be the first ever in EC history which had been sent without a hearing taking place on the merit of the matter. The party will approach the Delhi HC and plead that the recommendation be discarded. AAP’s previous plea to the EC in June 2017 requesting that the “office of profit” case be dropped was rejected, and the EC ruled that the proceedings against the party would continue thereafter. This controversy is cited back to the weeks after AAP won a majority in the Delhi Assembly election, and appointed their lawmakers as parliament secretaries in March of 2015.
This development is bound to tarnish AAP Party’s image, as the president is inclined to go by the Electoral Commission’s recommendation (When petitions are made seeking to disqualify lawmakers, the president sends a reference to the EC which through sending back their opinion decide on the case). Chief Electoral Commissioner AK Joti said that he would not leave a comment since the matter is still sub judice. The fate of the 20 AAP MLAs now lies in the hands of President Ram Nath Kovind whose decision is still awaited.
