President Kovind gives nod to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday accepted the recommendation of the Election Commission to disqualify 20 lawmakers of Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party, for violating the provisions of the Office of Profit. Under the provisions, lawmakers cannot hold any post in the government that entitles them to perks or powers unless a law has been passed to exempt the posts. AAP has described the Commission's recommendation as "unconstitutional and undemocratic". The legislators have also appealed in high court, which will hear the matter on Monday.

A notification from President Ram Nath Kovind's office said, "Having considered the matter in the light of the opinion expressed by the Election Commission, I, Ram Nath Kovind, president of India, in exercise of the powers... do here hold that the aforesaid 20 members of the Delhi legislative assembly stand disqualified from being members of the said assembly".

The disqualification of the 20 lawmakers will not endanger AAP's government. AAP has 66 seats in the 70-member assembly. Its numbers will now be down to 46 seats, which is well past the half-way mark of 35.

The President's approval of the Election Commission's recommendation paves the way for by-elections in the 20 assembly seats, giving the opposition BJP and Congress a chance to increase their tally. The BJP has four seats in the house, the Congress none.

AAP legislators, who moved the Delhi High Court on Friday, did not get any interim relief. The court posted the matter for hearing on Monday. The court had earlier quashed the AAP government's order appointing 21 legislators as parliamentary secretaries as it lacked the approval of the Lieutenant Governor, the administrative head of Delhi.

"We had hoped to go to the President asking him to give us a chance to present ourselves. Now we received this news. AAP will knock the doors of HC and even SC if needed," said Delhi law minister Gopal Rai.

While chief minister Arvind Kejriwal did not directly respond to the goings-on, the party's official Twitter handle did post a statement from him: "They really tormented us, got false cases registered against our legislators, launched a CBI raid against me, but they never got anything. In the end, they finally got 20 of our MLAs disqualified."