M A I N   N E W S

Complaints against Amarinder, 36 MLAs referred to EC
R. Suryamurthy
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 25
The Punjab Governor has referred the complaints about Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and other 36 MLAs of holding office of profit to the Election Commission.

With this the state has attained the dubious distinction of topping the list of over 200 MLAs, including several Chief Ministers, who have been referred by state Governors across the country on complaints by different political parties seeking the disqualification of these legislators for holding office of profit.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has forwarded a list of complaints against 43 MPs, including Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Meira Kumar, Naveen Jindal, Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra and T. Subbirami Reddy for holding office of profit.

The names of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and industrialist Anil Ambani also figure in the list but the two have since resigned from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, respectively, after the office of profit controversy broke out last month in the wake of disqualification of actress-turned-MP Jaya Bachchan.

The complaint against Ms Gandhi was also declared by the EC as “infructuous” after her resignation.

References have been received from President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Governors of various states by the Election Commission against these lawmakers, which were under “various stages of consideration”, the EC said.

Punjab has 37 MLAs referred to the poll panel by the state Governor on the complaint by Capt Kanwaljit Singh of the SAD and Mr Prashant Kumar of the BJP.

The list includes Joginder Singh Mann, Shavinder Singh Kathunangal, Aruna Chaudhary, H.S. Thekedar, Ram Lubhaya, Randeep Singh, Surinder Dabur, O.P. Soni, Gurjant Singh Kuttiwal, Romal Chand, Dr Mohinder Kumar Rinwan, Ashok Sharma, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Jasbir Singh Gill, Ravinder Singh Sandhu, Kanwaljit Singh Lalli, Gurkanwal Kaur, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Prakash Singh Bhatti, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Malkiat Singh Birmi, Dr Harbans Lal, Harbans Kaur Dullon, K.P. Singh Rana, Prakash Singh, Dr Raj Kumar Verka, Razia Sultana, Sandhu Singh Dharamsot, Sukhhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sunil Jakhar, Ashwani Sekhri, Hans Raj Josan, Rakesh Pandey, Gurbinder Singh Atwal, Raghunath Sahai Puri and Randeep Singh Nabha.

The Governor of Himachal Pradesh has forwarded the complaint by Ravinder Singh Ravi against 12 MLAs of the state for holding office of profit. Those named were Mukesh Agnihotri, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Anita Verma, Dr Prem Singh, Tek Chand, Harsh Wardhan, Lajja Ram, Harbhajan Singh, Jagat Singh Negi, Surender Kumar, Sudhir Sharma and Raghbir Singh.

The Lieut-Governor of Delhi has sought the opinion of the Election Commission on the complaints lodged by Vijay Jolly of the BJP against 19 MLAs of the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi.

Those named by the BJP leader were Naseeb Singh, Dr Narendra Nath, Anjali Rai, Mateen Ahmed, Rajesh Jain, Prahlad Singh Sawhney, Braham Pal, Ambrish Singh Gautam, Rajesh Lilothia, Dr Bijender Singh, Prof Kiran Walia, Ashok Ahuja, Tajdar Babar, Vijay Singh Lochav, Mahabal Mishra, Kanwar Karan Singh, Veer Singh Dhingan and Bhisham Sharma.

Other prominent MPs against whom complaints have been made included Karan Singh, Najma Heptullah, Ajit Singh, V.K. Malhotra, Amar Singh, Sajan Kumar, Anuradha Chowdhury, and N. Jothi.

Chief Ministers against whom references have been made included those of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as also the Leader of Opposition in Nagaland, several ministers in these states.

The names were displayed by the EC on its website this evening in the wake of complaint by a Delhi doctor, who accused it of violating the Right to Information Act and threatened to take appropriate steps to seek information on the references received by it.

Punjab has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of 37 references followed by Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh 25 each. While Jharkhand accounted for 21, Delhi has 19, Sikkim 17, Uttaranchal 14 and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh 13 each and Pondicherry and Maharashtra have one each.

More than one complaint has been filed against some MPs, including two against the Lok Sabha Speaker.

Meanwhile, the poll panel today issued a notice to Rashtriya Lok Dal MP Anuradha Choudhary seeking her response to a complaint that charged her with holding an office of profit. She is the third MP to receive such a notice after Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh. Another SP MP Jaya Bachchan has already been disqualified.

EC sources said Choudhary had been served the notice following a complaint that she was holding the chairpersonship of the UP Flood Control Commission. She had been given three weeks time to reply to the notice, the sources said.