AAP holds emergency meet, discusses rejection of bill by President

NEW DELHI: Twenty-one MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party face the threat of being disqualified after President Pranab Mukherjee withheld the bill to provide legal cover to their appointments as parliamentary secretaries to the Delhi government.

Anticipating potential disqualification over holding an ‘office of profit’, the Delhi assembly had passed the Delhi Members of Legislat ive Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, last year to exempt MLAs appointed parliamentary secretaries from disqualification.

However, Mukherjee has “withheld assent” to the bill exposing the MLAs to potential disqualification as the Election Commission is hearing a plea to that effect. MHA sources told ETthat the President took the decision based on Attorney General’s legal opinion who cited provisions concerning office of profit in the Representation of the People’s Act.

Speaking with ET, Delhi government officials denied having received any official communication and thus avoided comment. However, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal reflected the alarm in AAP administration in a series of tweets, in which he blamed PM Modi for President Mukherjee’s decision.

“No MLA was given money, vehicle or a bungalow. Everyone was working free. Modiji says, ‘Everyone should stay at home. No one should work’,” wrote Kejriwal. The AAP supremo claimed Modi is “afraid” of all the good work being done in Delhi.

The Delhi Opposition was quick to react. The Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha, BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, said, “It is a moral defeat for CM Kejriwal himself and the AAP. The government tried dishonestly to amend the law with retrospective effect.”