A day after one of its senior MLAs and Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said that he would drag the Aam Aadmi Party government to the Lokayukta over the appointment of parliamentary secretaries, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party said the move was in line with a “larger strategy”.
The party was, according to a source, gearing up for “snap polls to 21 Assembly seats in Delhi in early 2017”, which it was hopeful would be conducted alongside the Punjab Assembly elections in February. “The President’s decision to refuse assent to the Bill that could have saved the 21 AAP MLAs from disqualification has come at a very opportune time. We are confident that the AAP will find its attention divided between the 21 seats on its home turf and its prospects in Punjab next year,” a party source said.
On Wednesday, Vijender Gupta had announced his decision to approach the Delhi Lokayukta to challenge Mr. Kejriwal’s “constitutionally invalid” decision regarding the appointment of 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.
Mr. Gupta, on the basis of inputs from constitutional experts, expressed confidence in the impending decision of the Election Commission to disqualify the said contingent of AAP’s legislators from their respective offices.
Party leaders, meanwhile, said they expected the EC’s decision to be challenged by the ruling AAP in the court. Despite this, they said, the party was confident that the 21 MLAs would get no respite.
