AAP defends Raghav Chadha on alleged misconduct: ‘Just like Rahul Gandhi…’

The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday came out in support of its Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and described the allegations of misconduct by five members of the Upper House of Parliament against him as “false and baseless”.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has clarified that the rules of the proceedings state “no written consent or signature of the member whose name has been proposed” and there's no question of any allegation of misconduct.

Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh on Monday announced a probe into the complaints of at least five MPs that their names were included in a proposed select committee of the House for the Delhi services bill without their consent. After the deputy chairman read out the names to be included in the proposed select committee, Union home minister Amit Shah informed that five members have complained that their names were included without their signatures in the proposal moved by Chadha. He demanded that this issue be investigated. Terming it a breach of privilege of the House, Shah said the matter should be referred to the privileges committee. Shah also attacked the AAP alleging that the party was "committing fraud in parliamentary proceedings".

Suspended AAP MP Sanjay Singh alleged that Amit Shah was after Chadha. "Just like Rahul Gandhi's membership was taken away through a false and baseless case, they want to take away Raghav's membership. They are very dangerous people. They can do anything. But we are soldiers of the common man. We are not scared of them. We fight them and we will continue to fight them. If Raghav's membership is taken away, he will come back after being elected and continue his fight against them."

AAP chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said the entire opposition “unitedly opposed” the bill. Party Delhi convener Gopal Rai said the bill is an "insult" to the people of Delhi.

"The entire opposition unitedly opposed the unconstitutional bill yesterday. We are fighting the battle in Parliament and the court. The people of Delhi will give them (BJP) a befitting reply in the next elections," Kakkar said.

Kakkar said, "Raghav Chadha proposed the names of 19 MPs (for the select committee), of which five members refused. They made it a big issue out of it because they got scared of his speech."

AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP is “cooking up a false case” against Chadha.

Taking to Twitter, Bharadwaj said, “The entire BJP is after Raghav Chadha. Just like they (Centre) disqualified Rahul Gandhi by creating a false case, BJP wants to do the same with Raghav too. These people are very powerful and can do anything. But we are not afraid of them.”

Five MPs, who have raised objections are S Phangnon Konyak, Narhari Amin and Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP, AIADMK MP M Thambidurai and BJD's Sasmit Patra.

(With inputs from ANI, PTI)