More AAP MLAs face disqualification threat

While uncertainty prevails over the fate of 21 AAP MLAs in the office-of-profit complaint case in Delhi, as many as 17 more legislators of the party appear to be sliding into another controversy. President Pranab Mukherjee has forwarded to the poll panel another complaint against 27 AAP MLAs for holding office-of-profit in the Delhi government. The second complaint carries names of 10 legislators who along with 11 others are facing the prospect of disqualification during their role as parliamentary secretaries in the city government.

A highly placed source said that Rashtrapati Bhavan has forwarded the complaint against 27 legislators to the Election Commission (EC). The complaint against the 27 MLAs was filed by a Delhi-based law student, Vibhor Anand, who had alleged that these legislators were holding posts of chairpersons of Rogi Kalyan Samitis in different government hospitals in Delhi without any legal sanctity. Mr Anand had lodged the complaint directly with the EC in June, following which the Commission had said that it should be made to the President who, in turn, will send it to the Commission.

The samitis are special committees operating in each Delhi government hospital that take care of hospital maintenance. They function under the state health society. They work as independent bodies and are empowered to raise their own funds. Each samiti is headed by an MLA as chairman and deputy commissioner (revenue) as vice chairman. The samitis were set up by the Congress government in 2009 to replace the hospital advisory committees that did not have any executive powers. Mr Anand’s contention is that the 2009 order violated the mandate of the scheme and the Congress as well as AAP governments in Delhi are guilty of illegally appointing MLAs as chairpersons. Mr Anand’s complaint has left 17 more MLAs with the sword of possible disqualification hanging over their heads, in addition to the 21 already facing the office-of-profit probe. The fresh list includes Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, his deputy Rakhi Birla, former deputy speaker Bandana Kumari and estranged AAP MLA and Swaraj Abhiyan leader Pankaj Pushkar. The names of the 27 AAP MLAs named in Mr Anand’s complaint, according to various media reports, include 10 former parliamentary secretaries.