Within a week of advocate HS Phoolka threatening Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh of moving the Supreme Court in case his resignation was not accepted, the same has been done nearly a year after it was submitted.
Phoolka was elected from Dakha assembly constituency on the ticket of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He had resigned from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on October 2018, and also from AAP in January this year.
After repeated pleas followed by a “warning”, the Speaker Rana KP Singh on Friday accepted Phoolka’s resignation, paving way for the by-elections in Dakha assembly constituency, along with the other two vacant seats — Phagwara, and Jalalabad.
The byelections to the three vacant seats are likely to be held in October along with the impending Haryana assembly elections.
The byelections to Jalalabad and Phagwara are necessitated following the election of sitting MLAs — SAD’s Sukhbir Badal and Som Parkash respectively — from Ferozepur and Hoshiarpur, in that order, after recently-held Lok Sabha elections.
Besides, AAP’s four other MLAs — Nazar Singh Mansahia from Mansa, Amarjit Singh Sandoa from Ropar, Sukhpal Singh Khaira from Bholath, and Master Baldev Singh from Jaiton — are also set to lose their membership.
Mansahia and Sandoa have shifted their loyalties to the ruling Congress in the run up to Lok Sabha elections, while Khaira had floated a new party — Punjab Ekta Party (PEP) with Master Baldev Singh joining him. Notably, Khaira had submitted his resignation with the Speaker, Master Baldev Singh is yet to do the same.
Khaira, who had left AAP, floated his own political outfit ahead polls in January this year and unsuccessfully contested from Bathinda Lok Sabha seat. Even as AAP has sought Khaira’s removal as an MLA, the two-time MLA had later submitted his two-page resignation to the Speaker — which is not as per the accepted procedure, but is under consideration.
Master Baldev Singh, who had also unsuccessfully contested elections from Faridkot Lok Sabha seat, is expected to face anti-defection proceedings under the Act.
Phoolka, on Sunday, had written to the Speaker saying that he would have to move the Supreme Court if his resignation is not accepted. “In the event you do not take any decision on my resignation, I will be constrained to approach the Supreme Court of India,” he had stated in the letter.
“Phoolka’s resignation has been accepted by the Speaker,” said a Vidhan Sabha official on Friday.
Notably, Phoolka had stepped down to press for immediate action against those involved in desecrating the Guru Granth Sahib in the state in 2015. While quitting as an MLA, he had claimed that the Congress Government in the State had not taken the desired action against those named in the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission's report on sacrilege incidents.
SAD’s BID TO CLAIM LOP, SEEKS ACTION AGAINST AAP’s FOUR MLAs
In a bid to claim the place of the principal opposition party — a place snatched by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after 2017 state assembly polls, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday demanded disqualification of AAP’s four MLAs, who have either resigned or switched loyalties, besides debarring them from contesting elections for the remaining term of the 15th Vidhan Sabha.
“The Constitution as well as The Representation of Peoples Act was being violated in Punjab with four legislators, who had resigned from the primary membership of AAP months back, not being disqualified and debarred from contesting elections for the remaining term of the 15th Vidhan Sabha,” said the former minister and SAD MLA Bikram Singh Majithia.
Majithia said that the tenth schedule of the Constitution said ‘a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such a political party’.
Since all four MLAs had resigned as primary members of AAP, the constitutional provision was being subverted, he said.
Majithia said that three legislators – Sukhpal Singh Khaira (Bholath), Nazar Singh Mansahia (Mansa), and Master Baldev Singh (Jaito) had resigned from AAP seven months back in January 2019, while Amarjit Singh Sandoa (Ropar) had resigned in May 2019.
“Khaira and Master Baldev Singh had formed a new political party, while Mansahia and Sandoa had joined the Congress...There is no ambiguity about the resignations or the subsequent actions of the four legislators,” he said while substantiating his claims with photographic evidence in all cases including Speaker Rana KP Singh’s presence during Sandoa’s induction into the Congress ahead Lok Sabha polls.
The Akali leader said that the delay in taking required action was a cruel joke on the electorate of the four constituencies which was currently not being represented in the Vidhan Sabha. “It is imperative that all five seats be declared vacant so that fresh elections could be held on them,” he said.
He added that the state exchequer was also being defrauded with the legislators drawing salaries and enjoying various facilities, including staff and security personnel entitled only to legislators. “The average cost incurred on a single legislator alone is more than Rs five lakh per month and the total expenditure incurred by the State on extending facilities to all of them, including HS Phoolka who had resigned ten months back, is in crores of rupees,” he added.
He said that all this was being done to ensure a friendly opposition as part of a fixed match between the ‘chhoti Congress’ (AAP) and the parent party. “Even the Leader of Opposition is being kept in his chair solely by the Congress party as the effective strength of AAP had been reduced to 11 legislators only. While Phoolka’s resignation has been accepted, the Speaker is yet to take a decision on four legislators even as Kanwar Sandhu has been suspended from the party and three other AAP legislators — Pirmal Singh, Jagdev Singh Kamalu and Jagtar Singh Jagga — have openly gone against AAP,” he pointed.
Maintaining that there could not be two sets of rules for Karnataka and Punjab, Majithia said that in Karnataka, the assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, who belonged to the Congress party, had disqualified 17 MLAs and debarring them from contesting elections for the remainder of the current term of the State assembly for switching parties.
MANN ACCUSES SPEAKER OF ADOPTING DOUBLE-STANDARDS
AAP’s Punjab unit chief and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, reacting to the development, said that resigning as Dakha MLA was HS Phoolka’s personal decision while the party was never in agreement with it.
Expressing deep concern for the people of the constituency, Mann said that the people of Dakha constituency, who had reposed their abiding faith in AAP and Phoolka, were left in a quandary. “Resigning as a member of legislative assembly is a disgrace to the democratic values, besides being gross injustice to the people who had pinned high hopes on the elected representative like Phoolka,” he said.
He said that Phoolka, who commanded immense respect in the party, was picked to lead the Opposition Party in Punjab Vidhan Sabha by party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Accusing the Government and the Speaker of adopting double-standards in terms of accepting resignations of AAP MLAs, Mann said that the Speaker Rana KP had not been performing his constitutional obligations with the way he should.
“If the Speaker had not been adopting double standards, he would have simultaneously accepted the resignations of Mansa MLA Nazar Singh Mansahia and Ropar MLA Amarjit Singh Sandoa as he did in the case of Phoolka,” said Mann.
“No action has been initiated against Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, and Jaiton MLA Baldev Singh, who had not only ditched the party but had also cheated on the people of their respective constituencies and stitched loyalties to the Congress party and the Badals for their petty political ends,” he said.
“The party had sought action against Khaira, but no action has been taken in the matter while they are pocketing their salaries, vehicles, security and other political and financial benefits,” said Mann while alleging that they were being given indirect benefits by nominating them to various committees.