Kejriwal has no right to continue. Half of his cabinet ministers removed on corruption charges! 20 MLAs who were e… https://t.co/izshVwiSzw — Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) 1516352607000

(With inputs from agencies)

NEW DELHI: In a big setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Election Commission on Friday recommended that 20 of its MLAs be disqualified for holding ' office of profit '.The EC has sent its recommendation to the President for his assent, which he's fully expected to give. In cases where petitions are made seeking disqualification of lawmakers, the President sends a reference to the EC which decides on the case by sending back its opinion.In the current scenario, the petition was directed at 21 MLAs, but one had resigned.The disqualification of the legislators is expected to pave the way for byelections in Delhi.The controversy over the "office of profit" started soon after the party's victory in the 2015 Assembly elections in Delhi. A petition filed by lawyer Prashant Patel sought the disqualification of the MLAs on the grounds that they were holding an 'office of profit' as parliamentary secretaries .The MLAs' pleas that the case against them be dropped were rejected by the EC in June 2017.Read this story in MarathiIn August 2017, the MLAs appealed to the Delhi high court asking it to not allow the EC taking up the Delhi lawyer's petition. They argued that their appointments to the post of parliamentary secretary were already quashed, in 2016.In turn, the Delhi high court said it couldn't accept the MLAs' plea, because the EC hadn't at the time begun to hear the issue.Read this story in GujaratiEarlier this month the Congress urged chief election commissioner Achal Kumar Joti to immediately disqualify the 20 legislators.