A day after bye-elections to four assembly segments in Punjab, Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira kept the political temperature soaring in the state with his decision to withdraw his resignation as Punjab Vidhan Sbaha member.
While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has made it clear that the party doors are “closed” for the former member, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has demanded Khaira’s immediate disqualification along with three other AAP MLAs.
“AAP’s doors for Khaira are closed forever. While he was in AAP, he continuously tried to split the party, that is why he would not be taken back in the party,” said the leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha and senior AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema.
Saying that now welcoming Khaira back in the party is not only his decision but that of the party, Cheema made it clear that party’s doors are open for other disgruntled and rebel legislators. “We are making every effort to pacify them,” he said adding that even Khaira’s close associate Kanwar Sandhu is also welcomed.
Demanding Khaira and three other AAP MLAs’ disqualification “for leaving their parent party and forming new political formations besides joining the Congress party”, senior SAD leader and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema said that Khaira’s attempt to backtrack from his resignation by approaching the Vidhan Sabha Speaker amounted to “playing a fraud upon the Constitution”.
“As per the Constitution, all these AAP legislators are liable to be disqualified for violating The Representation of Peoples Act for resigning from the primary membership of AAP. They cannot escape disqualification by initiating any drama of taking back their resignations,” he said.Stating that the Congress Government now wanted to run away from facing more by-elections, Cheema said: “this is why Sukhpal Khaira trooped to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker’s office to take back his resignation even as Baldev Singh announced he was rejoining AAP.” “This script, like the earlier resignations, has also been dictated by the Congress party and proves our contention that the AAP legislators are working as Congress agents and are part of the Congress party’s B-team,” he said.
SAD leader also asked the Cong party to disclose the give and take with the AAP legislators, saying that this ‘unholy alliance’ was proving costly to the State exchequer with the MLAs’ drawing salaries & enjoying various facilities, including staff & security personnel, entitled only to legislators. Cheema said that Khaira and Baldev Singh had not only left AAP but had also formed a new party by the name of Punjab Ekta Party (PEP) and even contested the parliamentary polls on the new symbol. “Nazar Singh Mansahia and Aamrjit Singh Sandoa had resigned from AAP and joined the Congress party,” he added.
“As per the tenth schedule of the Constitution, a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such a political party,” Cheema pointed adding that since all four MLAs had resigned as primary members of AAP, the constitutional provision had being subverted.
Pointing that Khaira representing Bholath assembly segment, Mansahia from Mansa and Master Baldev Singh from Jaito had resigned from AAP seven months back in January 2019 while Amarjit Singh Sandoa had resigned in May 2019, Cheema said that the delay in taking action was a cruel joke on the electorate of the four constituencies and demanded that all the four seats be declared vacant immediately.
Cheema added that there could not be two sets of rules on the same issue while citing the example of Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh who had disqualified 17 MLAs and debarred them from contesting elections for the remainder of the current term of the State Assembly for switching parties.
“The Congress party had lauded the decision of the Karnataka Speaker who was also a Congressman. Recently, the Haryana Assembly Speaker Krishan Pal Gujjar had also disqualified five legislators for switching their loyalties from their parent party,” he pointed.
