New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday demanded disqualification of 21 AAP MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries, saying it is an “open and shut” case and called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal “newage Tughlaq” who has “cheated” people.
“The Election Commission (while recommending Jaya Bachchan’s disqualification) from the Rajya Sabha opined that any post, even if held in an advisory capacity, was an office of profit.
“This is an open and shut case. The EC must take a final call on the disqualification issue at the earliest. The appointment of 21 Parliament Secretaries is illegal as the prescribed limit for such an appointment in Delhi is only one,” BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said.
The Delhi government’s declaration in its affidavit that they had not taken any benefit from the government is “false” as they were allocated rooms, she said, seeking action under the Representation of People Act.
“It is so unfortunate that the people of Delhi have been cheated while electing the newage Tughlaq by the name of Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi government is the epicenter of nepotism and huge corruption,” she said, accusing his government of involvement in Rs 400 crore tanker scam.
“The BJP wants a CBI enquiry into the corrupt affairs of the Kejriwal government,” she said.
Hitting back at Kejriwal after he blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for President’s refusal to gove assent to a bill that protects these MLAs from office of profit charge, she told a press conference, “He is known to dupe people by creating fuss over non-issues and sidelining them. The issue is what the law has provided.”
Lekhi noted that Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan was disqualified as Rajya Sabha MP on the ground of holding an office of profit even though she made no money from the post.
“It is not BJP but the Election Commission which has caught him red-handed. Now he fears action from the EC and is so lying. He is trying to mislead people,” she said.
She also rejected Kejriwal’s contention that many other states too had many Parliamentary Secretaries, saying law provided for only one such post in Delhi.
Another BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Chief Minister of being “obsessed” about attacking Modi for no rhyme or reason.
He said Kejriwal was “frustrated” that his flying ambition has crash-landed and asked him not to make the President’s decision a “political issue”.
“Office of the President of India and the Election Commission are independent institutions with great credibility.
“You (Kejriwal) have certain political ambitions, rightly so under a democratic system, but for god’s sake don’t demean the credibility of the President of India because in the end you are demeaning the democracy of this country,” Patra told reporters.
In a jolt to the AAP government, President Pranab Mukherjee has refused to give assent to a legislation that protects 21 party MLAs, who have been appointed Parliamentary Secretaries, and face the prospect of disqualification.
—PTI