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A month on, AAP uncertain over suspending two MPs
A month after announcing the suspension of its Lok Sabha members Dr Dharamvira Gandhi (Patiala) and Harinder Singh Khalsa (Fatehgarh Sahib) and getting their due replies to the show-cause notices, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) is yet to decide their fate, while the MPs also wait for a communication.
A month after announcing the suspension of its Lok Sabha members Dr Dharamvira Gandhi (Patiala) and Harinder Singh Khalsa (Fatehgarh Sahib) and getting their due replies to the show-cause notices, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) is yet to decide their fate, while the MPs also wait for a communication.
Asked why both these leaders still awaited their suspension letters, AAP’s core-committee member and Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh claimed he was unaware. “They were served show-cause notices and we got their replies. Further you may ask the party’s disciplinary action committee” he told Hindustan Times on the sidelines of the party’s close-door meeting with its state- and zonal-level members and observers.
Contacted in Delhi, Deepak Bajpai, a member of the party’s disciplinary action committee, accepted that the decision on the replies of both Khalsa and Dr Gandhi was still pending. “Satisfied or not satisfied by the replies, we will get back to them,” said Bajpai, adding that AAP’s national disciplinary action committee in-charge Pankaj Gupta would take the final call.
Both Dr Gandhi and Khalsa were served notices on September 23, asking them why they should not be suspended. In a reply filed on October 2, Dr Gandhi had challenged the very composition of the disciplinary action committee, besides raising his voice for “internal party democracy and ‘swaraj’ principles”. While Khalsa’s reply was on similar lines, Dr Gandhi had also pointed out that the internal party matters such as suspension ought to be handled by the party’s lokpal, under the AAP’s constitution.
On the lokpal’s role, Bajpai told HT that the MPs were free to approach that authority, if they were dissatisfied with the committee’s decision. He, however, did not specify any timeframe for finalising the decision. Sanjay Singh was here to coordinate among 13 zonal observers from Delhi campaigning in Punjab, besides 13 zonal conveners across the state.
‘Drunken Mann’ video inconclusive: Sanjay
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh on Wednesday ruled out any instance of the party’s Lok Sabha member Bhagwant Mann’s making a public appearance under the influence of liquor.
On Wednesday here, he said a video clipping showing an allegedly drunken Mann leaving a congregation near Faridkot in a huff was inconclusive. “We could make out from a video whether the man is drunk or not, as nothing of this sort is visible,” Sanjay Singh told HT, when asked for his version on the video that went viral in the past two days. He even said the party even has no complaint against Mann’s creating nuisance in public.
