Maha: Bill giving MoS rank to ruling party chief whips passed

A bill providing Minister of State status to the chief whips of the ruling parties was today passed in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The office of chief whip has been excluded from the scope of office of profit in the bill.
According to the amendment to the Maharashtra Legislature Members (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, a person shall not be disqualified for being chosen as chief whip or for being a member of either House of the state Legislature merely because he holds the office of chief whip.
"The office of chief whip of the party forming the government are of utmost importance for functioning of the houses. They cannot be disqualified due to certain facilities attached to the offices," the bill said.

Raj Purohit and Bhai Girkar are the chief whips of BJP in the Assembly and Council respectively, while Sunil Prabhu and Neelam Gorhe are the chief whips of Shiv sena in the Assembly and Council respectively.
With the passage of the bill, Maharashtra will also give status of Minister of State to the chief whips of ruling parties, like in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said the facility would be provided only to the chief whips.
21 MLAs of AAP in Delhi are facing disqualification over the office of profit issue since Arvind Kejriwal accorded parliamentary secretary status to them.