Cong accuses Kejriwal of "lying" on office of profit issue

Accusing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "lying" on the office of profit issue, Congress today hardened its demand for disqualification of 21 AAP MLAs, insisting that what has been done was "procedurally, legally and ethically wrong"
"It is not only procedurally and legally wrong, it is ethically also wrong. Nowhere in the country, you find one third of the MLAs being appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries," party's senior spokesman Ajay Maken told reporters.
Maken, who is also the Delhi PCC Chief and has been in the vanguard in raising the issue, said that one of the reasons for the appointments was "lust for power".

"When they brought in the concerned Bill, they said that there is not going to be any financial implication on the Consolidated Fund of India which was an absolute lie. So Mr Kejriwal lied to the people of Delhi", he said.
Besides, he said the timing of the appointment of the MLAs was also significant as it happened at a time when division within the AAP was taking place as Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Anand Kumar were being removed from the AAP Party.
"Somehow there is a strong probability that these posts were offered to these MLAs so that they do not leave the party and join hands with Prashan Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav & Co", he said.

Taking potshots at Kejriwal's party, he said "a party which calls itself as AAM AADMI PARTY, they hike their salary to the tune of 400% - about Rs 3 lakhs salary + perks a month, which is the highest in the country, 1/3rd of their MLAs are not satisfied, they want perks and facilities of that of a Minister.".

He said the Congress Party went to the Election Commission of India on June 9th, 2016 and we have submitted a petition requesting the Election Commission to recommend to the Central Government of disqualification of these 21 MLAs.
Replying to a question, he said if bypolls are held for the 21 seats, Congress would emerge as the main opposition party as the assembly seats in question were held earlier by party's senior leaders like Subhasch Chopra, Aravinder Singh Lovely, A K Walia and Mahabal Mishra.

At present, Congress does not have a single member in the 70-member House and BJP enjoys the Leader of the Opposition position despite having just three members. AAP has secured the rest 67 seats.