For the 1st Time, AAP Loses Control of Delhi Haj Committee. BJP's Kausar Jahan is the New Chief

In a major setback to the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP’s Kausar Jahan has been elected as the new chairman of the Delhi Haj Committee. Reportedly, the votes of BJP MPs Gautam Gambhir and Mohammad Saad played a major role in Jahan’s victory.

This is only the second time in the history of the national capital that a woman has been elected to the position of the panel chief. Former Delhi Congress chief Tajdar Babar was the only woman till now to have held this post.

Last month, the hajj committee had become a flashpoint between Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor after VK Saxena included a Congress councillor, evoking sharp reaction from AAP which alleged a nexus between BJP and Congress.

The L-G had on January 6 constituted the Delhi State Haj Committee for a period of three years. The committee organises Islamic pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

The members of the committee include BJP MP Gautam Gambhir, AAP MLAs Abdul Rehman and Haji Yunus, Congress MCD councillor Naziya Danish. Apart from these, Mohammad Saad was nominated as an expert in Islamic theology and law, while Kausar Jahan was nominated as a Muslim member from Muslim Voluntary Organisation.

CM Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the L-G expressing his displeasure over “dictating names” of the Haj Committee by allegedly bypassing the Delhi government. He argued that the elected government would “become irrelevant” because, practically in every law and provision, the word Administrator was used.

The DMC Act, the CM stated, is a transferred subject and even if the words used in the Act are “L-G/Administrator”, the L-G is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. “How did you directly constitute the Haj Committee by bypassing the elected government?” he asked.

A national daily quoted Delhi government sources as saying that Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot was deliberately bypassed regarding the nomination of six members of the committee in violation of Transaction of Business of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Rules, 1993 (TBR).

In response, L-G House sources were quoted as saying that the nominations fell under the purview of the Union List and not the Concurrent List, thereby falling under the ambit of the L-G in his capacity as the Administrator.

(details to follow)

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