Delhi Assembly Speaker gives one week to rebel AAP MLAs to file replies on defection charge

Two rebel AAP legislators, facing disqualification under the anti-defection law, were given a week's time by the Delhi Assembly speaker on Tuesday to submit their replies over joining the BJP.

The two MLAs Devender Sehrawat and Anil Bajpai joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, although they maintained that they did not fill the primary membership form of the party.

On Tuesday, the two lawmakers were represented by their counsels at a personal hearing before Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel.

While Speaker Ram Niwas Goel did not comment on the issue, officials in the Assembly secretariat said on condition of anonymity that the personal hearing of the two legislators was still slotted for 3pm on Tuesday.“The Speaker is of the view that seven days are sufficient to respond to the said notices. As of now, the hearing is still on the schedule of the Speaker,” an official said.

"I have been given a week's time by the speaker to submit my reply," Gandhinagar MLA Bajpai told PTI.

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Sources said the speaker also gave a week's time to Sehrawat for filing his reply.

Both the MLAs had sought more time to reply to the charge of joining the BJP on Monday, saying that the newspaper reports furnished by complainant Saurabh Bhardwaj along with his petition were not legible. They have demanded typed and translated copies of the documents.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson and MLA Bhardwaj had filed a complaint against the two MLAs, seeking their disqualification for defection to the BJP.

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"Even on the BJP dais, I had said that I had not taken the party membership. Kirti Azad and Shatrughan Sinha shared the dais with leaders of opposition parties and still continued to be members of Parliament," Sehrawat had earlier said.

The Beejwasan MLA was sidelined in the AAP for a long time over differences with senior party leaders.

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