Delhi Legislative Assembly

Congress Appoints Shivakumar as Karnataka Unit Chief, Anil Chaudhary as Delhi Chief

The appointment of both Shivakumar and Chaudhary comes one day after Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned from the Congress party.

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday appointed senior leader D.K. Shivakumar as its Karnataka unit chief.

Shivakumar, known to be the Congress’ chief troubleshooter in crisis situations, replaces Dinesh Gundu Rao as the KPCC chief.

Eashwar Khandre, Satish Jharkiholi and Saleem Ahammed have been named working presidents of the state unit by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, a party statement said.

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah will continue to be the Chief of Legislative Party and the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly.

While Ajay Singh was appointed as the chief whip in the Karnataka Assembly, M Narayanaswamy will be the party’s chief whip in the Legislative Council.

Also Read: Congress Should Welcome the Scindia Treachery, Work for the Gandhis’ Exit

The Congress also, on Wednesday appointed former MLA Anil Chaudhary as its Delhi unit chief, while naming five vice-presidents for the DPCC.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi named Chaudhary president and Abhishek Dutt, Shivani Chopra, Jaikishan, Mudit Agarwal and Ali Hassan vice-presidents of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), a party statement said.

Subhash Chopra had resigned as the Delhi Congress chief in February, taking moral responsibility for the party’s debacle in the Assembly polls.

The Congress drew a blank for the second time in a row in the Delhi Assembly polls and reduced its vote share from 9.7% in 2015 to 4.27% this time.

Delhi Assembly Speaker Disqualifies Two Rebel AAP MLAs Under Anti-Defection Law

The decision follows the disqualification of former Delhi minister Kapil Mishra for campaigning for the BJP.

New Delhi: Delhi assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Thursday disqualified rebel AAP MLAs Devinder Sehrawat and Anil Bajpai under the anti-defection law, an official order said.

Bajpai and Sehrawat had shared the stage with BJP leaders during the Lok Sabha polls.

Also read: Delhi HC Dismisses AAP MLAs’ Pleas for Recusal of Speaker From Disqualification Proceedings

The decision comes nearly a week after Goel disqualified rebel AAP MLA and former Delhi minister Kapil Mishra for campaigning for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party.

Sehrawat is a legislator from Bijwasan while Bajpai represents the Gandhi Nagar constituency.

Delhi HC Directs Anshu Prakash to Appear Before Assembly Panel

The order came after the counsel for the Delhi legislative assembly, the speaker and two panels informed the court that the three officers were neither appearing before the committees, nor replying to the information sought from them.

New Delhi: The Delhi high court today directed chief secretary Anshu Prakash and two other bureaucrats to appear before the committees of Delhi legislative assembly which had issued notices to them, warning them of contempt if they did not do so.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru warned the chief secretary and two other IAS officers that the court could issue contempt action against them if they failed to appear before the panels, saying they are officers and will have to appear before all the committees.

The counsels alleged the three were taking advantage of the court’s earlier order restraining the authorities from taking action against them. The high court had on March 9 asked the panels not to take coercive steps against the IAS officers.

The court today said, “It is clarified that the petitioners (bureaucrats) shall participate in the proceedings of the panels without prejudice to their rights and contentions.”

“It is the direction of this court that you will have to appear. If you fail to appear, forget about them (authorities), this court will issue contempt action against you”.

The court also made it clear that the committees will not take any coercive action against the bureaucrats till the pendency of petitions and directed that the proceedings of the panel meetings should be videographed.

The chief secretary was earlier served a notice by the Privileges Committee for skipping a meeting on February 20, which was scheduled a day after he was allegedly assaulted by two AAP MLAs – Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.

The chief secretary and the two officers were called for the meeting by the Q&R Committee to examine issues in which a reply from the Department of Cooperative Society was found to be incomplete and unsatisfactory. The issues related to the Delhi Nagrik Sahkari Bank Ltd.

With Three Rajya Sabha MPs, AAP Strength in Parliament Now Seven

AAP’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta called it a “historic day” for the party.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Credit: Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) strengthened its position in parliament today after three of its members were elected to the Rajya Sabha, taking the number of MPs of the five-year-old political outfit to seven.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s trusted lieutenant and party leader Sanjay Singh, chartered accountant N.D. Gupta and educationist Sushil Gupta received a ‘Certificate of Election’ from the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha polls.

Earlier in the day, election authorities rejected a petition of Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken seeking the cancellation of N.D. Gupta’s nomination, for allegedly holding an office of profit.

AAP’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta called it a “historic day” for the party which recorded a spectacular victory by bagging 67 seats in the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly in 2015.

The AAP now faces the task of making its presence felt in the Rajya Sabha.

“My job will be to raise issues related to Delhi and highlight how the Centre is not allowing an elected government to work despite its massive mandate,” Singh told reporters at the party office where he, along with the other two new MPs, were felicitated by Pankaj Gupta and Delhi unit convenor Gopal Rai.

Singh, who is one of AAP’s founder members and a part of its top decision-making body, the Political Affairs Committee, also said raising the issue of statehood for Delhi would be his top priority in the upper house.

The Rajya Sabha election had been muddied after Kejriwal chose the two Guptas, considered to be “outsiders”, over founder member Kumar Vishwas, who has been at odds with the leadership in recent times.

Vishwas had also made his displeasure known after the party’s decision.

Singh, Rai and Pankaj Gupta did not take any questions on Vishwas at the press conference today.

Although the party’s strength in parliament now goes up to seven, it is still fragmented. Of the four MPs in the Lok Sabha, two – Dharamvira Gandhi and H.S. Khalsa – have been suspended.

The other two – Bhagwant Mann and Sadhu Singh – had clocked 55% and 53% attendance respectively in parliament, according to PRS Legislative, a fact tank.