The leaders of opposition parties took this opportunity to target Arvind Kejriwal while the AAP ministers said that the decision was taken by the current EC chief to impress Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
AAP’s MLA from Greater Kailash Saurabh Bharadwaj reportedly said that the CEC's birthday is approaching. He will turn 65 on 23 January and after that neither Modi, not even god, can help Joti continue on this post. So he wanted to dispose off this case before he leaves office and do his master's last bidding.
He also tweeted –
AAP’s spokesperson Ashutosh tweeted-
He also said that the EC should not be the letterbox of the PMO but that is the reality today.
ALSO READ: Fate of 20 AAP MLAs hangs in balance; all eyes on President Kovind’s decision
BJP took a jibe by saying –
The party also said that they welcome the decision taken by the EC.
Sambit Patra also said, “Do they still have the morality of continuing in governance in Delhi?”
ALSO READ: AAP cries conspiracy as Election Commission recommends disqualification of its 20 MLAs in office of profit case
Congress demanded Kejriwal’s resignation. Congress leader Ajay Maken said that the AAP appointed all these MLAs as Parliamentary Secretary so that they could avail services and allowances as allowed to a minister.
He added that this was a misuse of public money.
This decision, if approved, will drastically reduce Kejriwal's cabinet. The MLAs whose fate hangs in balance are Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gehlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar).