Raghav Chadha of AAP hits back at BJP over ‘forged signatures’ allegation

Raghav Chadha of the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party over “forged signatures” allegations by five Rajya Sabha MPs and challenged the saffron party to show him the piece of paper where they are claiming the forged signatures.

“I have come under compulsion to expose the lies of the BJP. As per the rule book, no signature is required or taken. So I challenge the BJP to show me the piece of paper where they are claiming the forged signatures,” Chadha said at a press conference.

“The Rajya Sabha rule book states that no signature or written consent of a member, whose name has been proposed for the select committee, is required. It nowhere states that you require signatures or written consent from that proposed member,” Chadha added.

The AAP has claimed that the MP had yet to receive any notice from the Privilege Committee yet.

The five MPs alleged that the AAP leader added their names to the proposed panel without holding any prior consultation with them or taking their consent.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday referred the complaints of the MPs to the Privileges Committee to examine and investigate the allegations raised by them.

The chairman had received complaints of breach of privilege by Chadha “for inter-alia including the names of the MPs without their consent, in violation of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, in a motion on August 7”.

“On consideration of the facts, the Hon’ble Chairman, Rajya Sabha has referred the matter under Rule 203 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) to the Committee of Privileges for examination, investigation and report,” a Rajya Sabha bulletin read.

Chaddha had proposed a Select Committee of the House to examine the Delhi Services Bill.

Earlier, addressing the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the Delhi Services Bill on Monday, Union home minister Amit Shah said, “Two members (BJD MP Sasmit Patra and BJP MP Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi) are saying that they did not sign the motion (to be part of select committee) moved by AAP MP Raghav Chadha. Now it is a matter of investigation how the motion was signed.”

After eight hours of discussion and debate, the Bill to replace the Centre’s Ordinance for control of services in the national capital was passed by the Upper House after a division in which 131 MPs voted in favour of the legislation and 102 against it.

The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.