The Hindu : Front Page : Office of profit: EC receives 100 petitions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 02, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Office of profit: EC receives 100 petitions

J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI: Even as the Centre is contemplating legislation to protect members of Parliament from being disqualified for holding an `office of profit,' the Election Commission has received 100 petitions seeking the disqualification of 25 MPs and 75 MLAs. Some States have already enacted a law to protect their MLAs.

Ever since the Commission recommended the disqualification of Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, several complaints have been submitted to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and to the Governors. These have been forwarded to the Commission.

Commission sources said that of the 75 complaints in States, 19 were against MLAs of the BJP-ruled Jharkhand; 14 from Uttaranchal having a Congress Government; 13 from the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh; 12 from the Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh; 11 from Tripura ruled by the Left parties; three from Rajasthan; two from Nagaland and one from Uttar Pradesh.

Being processed

Twenty five petitions were received against MPs — 18 belonging to the Lok Sabha and seven to the Rajya Sabha. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has petitioned the President against 10 CPI(M) MPs, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. Sources said these petitions were at various stages of consideration.

New CEO for A.P.

Meanwhile V. Bhaskar, a 1981 batch IAS officer, has been appointed Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh.

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