Congress MLAs seek Dhumal and Ravi's resignation on moral grounds

Shimla, May 27 (UNI) Two Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs have demanded former chief minister P K Dhumal and BJP MLA Ravinder Ravi's resignation from the HP Assembly on moral grounds after the Election Commission of India rejected BJP's petition for disqualifying 12 MLAs for holding the office of profit.

''Mr Dhumal and Mr Ravi had been misleading the people of the state on the issue. Both the leaders should apologise now that the EC has disposed of their petition,'' Mr Harshwardhan Chauhan and Mr Mukesh Aghnihotri said in a joint press release here.

The HP High Court had struck down the appointment of Mukesh Agnihotri, Thakur Singh Bharmauri, Anita Verma, Prem Singh, Tek Chand, Harshwardhan Chauhan, Lajja Ram as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and Jagat Singh Negi, Surinder Kumar, Sudhir Sharma and Raghubir Singh as Parliamentary Secretaries on August 18, 2005 after which the matter was referred to the Election Commission.

The EC had in its recent order said they were not liable for disqualification from the Assembly because the posts were exempted under Section 3(d) of the HP Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) Act, 1971.

The EC's decision has clearly vindicated the Congress Party's stand on the issue, they said.

He advised the BJP leaders not to indulge in misinformation campaign against the government and said the people of the state had now seen the real face of the party.

UNI AS VKJ MSJ KP2255