No election ticket for expelled BJP MPs

The BJP today declared that the party would not be giving election tickets to any of its six MPs expelled after the cash-for-query sting operations.

The party also welcomed the Supreme Court decision to uphold the expulsion of 11 MPs who had been caught in the act.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad played down the fact that the BJP was hit the hardest by the expulsions and also the party's own efforts to get back its members their seats in the House.

"The Supreme Court verdict upholds the Parliament's right to decide on the conduct of its own members and we welcome the verdict," he said.

He admitted that the BJP, after reacting strongly initially did later say that the action against MPs was "hasty" and the punishment meted out to them was disproportionate to the crime that had been committed.

"We had asked instead that they be suspended for 3-4 sessions instead of being expelled," said Prasad. "In any case, the matter is now settled, and we welcome the fact that Parliament's privileges have been respected," he said.

In his remarks, BJP parliamentary party spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra suggested the government draw up guidelines to act on allegations of corruption against lawmakers.

"It's good that punishment is awarded for corruption, but there should also be rules in place to decide such cases," he said.