AAP to give privilege notice against Rajnath for 'misleading' Parliament (Lead)

New Delhi : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said it will submit a privilege notice in the Lok Sabha against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for what it called "misleading" Parliament on its demand for Delhi's full statehood.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday claimed that it had received no request from the city government to grant Delhi full statehood.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj wrote in Twitter: "Our party's member of Parliament will give privilege notice to initiate contempt proceedings against the Minister for deceiving Parliament and Delhi people."

Earlier in the day, Congress party's Professor K.V. Thomas had asked in the Lok Sabha the Home Minister three questions. First, is there a demand for statehood to Delhi; second, if so, what is the policy of the Central government; and third, what is the time by which a decision may be taken.

To this, Bharadwaj had said that Rajnath Singh had "lied" because "they (BJP) have themselves been demanding full statehood for the last 70 years and now, even after they have a majority in the Lok Sabha, they are sitting over the matter".

Bharadwaj, who is MLA from Greater Kailash constituency of Delhi, said a special session of the Delhi Assembly had demanded full statehood. "The proposal was not a private Bill, it was the Delhi government's resolution."

"Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had made this proposal. The resolution was passed and sent to the Central government," he said.

He further said that on June 11, 2018, a letter about Delhi's full statehood was sent to the Union Home Ministry from the Delhi Assembly and copies of that letter were also marked to Lt. Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In this backdrop, it is clear that the reply given in the Lok Sabha amounted to "cheating the people of Delhi", he said.