AAP MLAs move Delhi High Court against their disqualification

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in an open letter, has sought public support against the disqualification of AAP MLAs.

NEW DELHI: The 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs who were disqualified by the Election Commission for holding office of profit have moved Delhi High Court against their disqualification.

The fresh plea comes after the AAP MLAs on Monday withdrew an earlier petition in the High Court seeking a stay on the Election Commission's (EC) recommendation to President Ram Nath Kovind to disqualify 20 MLAs for holding the office-of-profit as Parliamentary Secretaries in Delhi.

The EC had made the recommendation on Friday which was approved by the President on Sunday under Section 15 (1) (a) of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act. 

The 20 MLAs disqualified are Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh. 

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in an open letter, sought public support against the disqualification decision.

Sisodia blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for hampering the work of the AAP government in the city and said the Centre was scared of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal`s "rising popularity across the country".

He said that the charges of holding office-of-profit against these MLAs were "false" as they "were not given any government vehicles, bungalows or salary".

The BJP attacked the AAP over Sisodia`s letter and dared it to contest all 70 Assembly seats in Delhi.

"People's answer: Don`t write letters and instead of contesting the 20 seats, contest all 70 seats," BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari said in a tweet.