'Will win majority of 21 seats if bypolls held in Delhi'

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken on Wednesday asserted that his party will win the majority of the 21 seats if by-elections are held after the disqualification of AAP MLAs who have been appointed as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries.

"Most of these assembly seats belong to Congress stalwarts like Mahabal Mishra, Arvinder Singh Lovely and A.K. Walia. We are confident that we will win majority of these 21 seats if by-elections are held," said Maken, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here.

He added that Congress may emerge as the largest party in these elections and the post of Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly may fall into their kitty.

Maken also accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of misleading the people on the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) issue.

"A Chief Parliamentary Secretary at least gets an office space, a car and driver if not any remuneration. Then how this is not an office of profit," asked Maken who was a CPS to Sheila Dikshit in her first tenure as chief minister of Delhi.

"When Sheila Dikshit had brought a bill for my appointment, it was introduced in assembly as a money bill. Again in 2007, when an amendment was brought in, it remained a money bill," Maken said when he was asked to describe the legislative aspect of the bill.

He asserted that if AAP had brought this bill through a proper channel, the President would have given his assent to it.

The President's refusal to sign this bill may lead to the disqualification of 21 AAP MLAs.

"AAP had appointed these CPS on March 13, almost 30 days after Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in as Chief Minister. And during the same period Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were thrown out of the party," Maken said insisting that AAP distributed these posts to keep these people with them.

"Otherwise, they would have gone with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan," he added.

Maken had led a delegation of Congress leaders to the Election Commission asking for disqualification of these 21 AAP MLAs.

--IANS

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