AAP in huddle, to take up with President office-of-profit issue

New Delhi: Upset about the Election Commission’s recommendation to President Ram Nath Kovind to disqualify 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs over charges of holding an office-of-profit, deputy chief minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Saturday said the party will meet the President against the EC’s recommendation.

The EC recommended to the President on Friday to disqualify the MLAs for holding office-of-profit as parliamentary secretaries, triggering calls for the resignation of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

However, the President does not enjoy much of discretion in such matters and it is almost sure that he would go by the poll panel’s recommendation.

Mr Sisodia said the commission’s decision to disqualify the MLAs without giving them a hearing was “unconstitutional” and they were asking for an appointment with the President to present their case before him.

“We will appeal to the President to ask the Election Commission to review all proofs that the MLAs have and give them a hearing,” Mr Sisodia said and added that the MLAs would also inform the President about the ‘EC’s biased opinion’. “The principle of natural justice was not followed in the process,” the deputy chief minister said.

Sources said that Mr Sisodia’s comments came after a meeting of the 20 MLAs with Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia at the chief minister’s residence in the evening. Mr Sisodia said they were positive that the MLAs would get relief from the court. However, even if the party does not get relief, it is not afraid of contesting elections as the “people’s court is the biggest court”.

He said that none of the MLAs gained a profit of a single rupee. “Not even a single vehicle or a single bungalow or not even an office was taken by the MLAs. They used to spend their own money and use their own vehicles. They did not draw any salary,” he said.

Mr Sisodia said this was not the first attack on the party, as in the past Mr Kejriwal’s house had been raided by the CBI, fake FIRs were lodged against their MLAs and even efforts were made to buy AAP MLAs.

He said all this was being done by the BJP as they were scared of the AAP government entering its fourth year and added that the latest attack was a conspiracy to bring down their government.

Mr Sisodia said the BJP was doing all this to derail the development works taking place in the city. “In 20 states, BJP and Congress have appointed parliamentary secretaries and they are drawing lakhs of rupees as salary,” he said.