The Aam Aadmi Party Wednesday wrote to the Election Commission seeking disqualification of 24 Parliamentary secretaries appointed by Punjab government and 9 by Himachal Pradesh, on charges of office of profit. This comes against the backdrop of EC's decision to hold personal hearings on July 14 for the 21 AAP MLAs over their appointment as Parliamentary Secretaries by the Delhi government. AAP government in Delhi had passed a bill in the Assembly to ratify the appointment of the 21 MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries. The bill sought to exempt the position of Parliamentary Secretary from the definition of “Office of Profit”. But the bill was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee when it was sent for his approval.
