On March 13, 2015, the Arvind Kejriwal government had passed an order appointing the 21 AAP legislators as Parliamentary Secretaries. (File photo)
With the sword of disqualification hanging over its 21 Delhi legislators over the issue of Office of Profit, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has approached the Election Commission seeking similar action against nearly 45 legislators of the BJP, Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal, holding such posts in other states.
Party units in Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh have made similar complaints to respective state's Chief Electoral Officers and the Election Commission.
The party intends to file a similar complaint in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh and other parts of the country by tomorrow. "We have written to the Election Commission seeking disqualification of parliamentary secretaries.
The Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh units have already done it.
The remaining units will follow the suit by tomorrow," party spokesperson Deepak Bajpai said.
The AAP is currently facing heat over a possible disqualification of its 21 Delhi lawmakers over the issue of Office of Profit.
Early this month, the President denied assent to a bill which sought immunity to its parliamentary secretaries from disqualification.
The Election Commission will commence personal hearing for all 21 legislator as requested by them.
The AAP also attacked the BJP and the Congress over the issue on the pretext that even the states which are being ruled by these parties have parliamentary secretaries.
In Punjab, the AAP has sought disqualification of 24 legislators, of which five are of the BJP and the remaining 19 belong to the Shiromani Akali Dal for holding post of parliamentary secretaries.
A compliant with the poll panel by the party said that the total number of parliamentary secretaries in the state has gone up to 24.
This is "in violation of article 191 of the Indian Constitution" and that they should be "immediately disqualified", the plea claimed.
Party's Madhya Pradesh Convenor Alok Agarwal said that a plea to disqualify School Education Minister Paras Jain and BJP lawmaker Deepak Joshi has been made to the poll panel.
In his plea, Mr Agarwal said that Jain is the chief commissioner of a scout organisation while Joshi is the vice-president of the same body, which, he claimed, comes under the purview of office of profit.
"In Karnataka, we have also lodged a complaint seeking disqualification of 10 MLAs," said AAP's Karnataka convenor Prithvi Reddy.