Punjab Assembly Speaker serves notice to Khaira

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 21

Acting on a complaint from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh on Monday issued 15-day notice to Sukhpal Khaira to explain his position.

The action comes days after the party sent a letter to Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP saying that Khaira had resigned from the party.

Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema had handed over the letter to the speaker.

With this, the disqualification of Khaira as MLA from Bholath in the Vidhan Sabha becomes inevitable.

Khaira after resigning from AAP had floated a new regional party ‘Punjabi Ekta Party’.

The notice was given to Khaira following petitions filed by Leader of Opposition Cheema and Harsimran Singh, a resident of Bholath.

“In their respective petitions, they made references to the speaker for Khaira’s disqualification,” the spokesman said.

In case Khaira failed to give a reply within 15 days, it will be presumed that he has nothing to say in this regard, the spokesman added.

In his petition to the speaker, Cheema had said that Khaira had voluntarily given up the membership of the AAP and had floated his own political party ‘Punjabi Ekta Party’.

He had quit the AAP on January 6, six months after he was ousted from the post of Leader of Opposition of the Punjab Assembly.

However, he had not resigned as MLA and had dared the AAP to get him disqualified. — With PTI