Sheetal Angural now ex-MLA; resignation accepted on May 30: House Secy

Ruchika M Khanna/ Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 3

A day after Sheetal Angural announced that he had asked Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to withdraw his resignation as an MLA, a notification, released by the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat today, said his resignation had already been accepted on May 30.

Notification sent to EC

The notification has been sent to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, saying that the seat has fallen vacant. The Election Commission will now decide the date for holding a bypoll in the Jalandhar West Assembly segment.

The notification has also been sent to the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, saying that the Jalandhar (West) seat has fallen vacant. The Election Commission will now decide the date for holding a bypoll in Jalandhar West Assembly segment.

Interestingly, the resignation of Raj Kumar Chabbewal, former Congress MLA, who joined AAP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, has not been accepted as yet. He had resigned on March 15 and has contested the Lok Sabha elections as AAP candidate from Hoshiarpur.

“His resignation was received on the mail. We are not sure if it is genuine, which explains the delay. But Angural had come to deliver the resignation and a receipt was also issued to him. There was no doubt that Angural had resigned, so we did not call him for a personal hearing and accepted his resignation,” said a top officer in the Vidhan Sabha.

Angural alleged that the resignation had been accepted on “back date”, without being given a personal hearing by Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. He was reportedly called for a meeting with Sandhwan today but when he reached the Vidhan Sabha, he was told that the Speaker was not in the city.

Outrightly denying these allegations, Vidhan Sabha Secretary Ram Lok told The Tribune that the resignation was accepted on May 30 and the notification was issued on May 31. “Because of the voting day being a holiday and the next day being Sunday, it was not released. Today being the first working day since the acceptance of the resignation, it has been released,” he said, adding that there was no need for personal hearing as the Speaker was satisfied that the resignation handed over by Angural himself was genuine.

Angural, who joined the BJP, after resigning as an AAP MLA, has also threatened to take legal recourse. He had resigned on March 28, a day after joining the BJP. He had been threatening to “expose AAP”.

Interestingly, Angural was the first MLA from AAP in 2022, who had alleged that the BJP was running an “Operation Lotus” and was luring him and several other MLAs with money to switch sides.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Vineet Joshi alleged that the decision to accept Angural’s resignation was taken in a haste by AAP, “which can see its defeat in the elections. He was asked to come and meet the Speaker on June 3, which was later changed to June 11. Even before a personal hearing, strangely the resignation has been accepted,” he said.