Office of profit: PC George and VS in trouble

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: P C George and V S Achuthanandan may lose their Assembly  membership if the office of profit clause is strictly applied to their present posts of Chief Whip and Opposition Leader respectively, according to legal experts.

 Contrary to the general impression and what Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and many others in the UDF camp are insisting that the precedents and practice have vested cabinet ranks on the Opposition Leader and Chief Whip, inquiries  revealed that no such enactment has been made by the state legislature, except in the case of MLAs.

“No exemption is there at present for the Opposition Leader or the Chief Whip to hold a cabinet rank. It can clearly attract disqualification of membership from the Assembly itself for those holding such rank,” a top legal source said.

    “It may be recalled that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had to quit her membership in the Lok Sabha in the first term of Manmohan Singh Government, after the cabinet rank vested on her was found to be an office of profit.

    “She had to contest the elections again and re-enter the Lok Sabha as a member and not with any cabinet rank,” the source said.

    In the case of George, the web is more complex since there is a portfolio for Parliamentary Affairs in the state now.

   As per law applicable to both the Parliament and state legislatures, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs is the one who acts as the chief whip.

Except for a few states like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, all other states had the portfolio long ago itself and hence there was no chief whip post.    But in 2001 Kerala also changed its pattern in accordance with the national system developed on the basis of recommendations of the all-India whips’ conference held in Shimla in 1984.

    Currently, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is holding the charge of  Parliamentary Affairs.

If at all a ruling front is forced to yield to political compulsions of coalition management, the only way out is the creation of a deputy chief whip post, next to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and gift a cabinet rank. But then, for those already holding the post of Chief Whip or Opposition Leader with a Cabinet rank, they may be forced to pay a political price.