BJP heavyweight Ranjeet Singh Chautala fielded from Hisar Lok Sabha, whose resignation as an MLA was pending for more than one month, has been accepted by the speaker but will remain a cabinet minister. Divulging more details in this regard, Ranjeet Singh said “ I have only resigned from the membership of the Assembly but will hold the portfolio of state cabinet minister’’. It is noteworthy that on March 24, Assembly Speaker Gyan Chand Gupta received the resignation of Ranjit Singh Chautala but could not be accepted as it was not confirmed that Ranjeet Singh had forwarded the same. Further, in a bid to confirm the aforementioned aspect, he was asked to appear before the speaker Gyanchandi Gupta to confirm his resignation on April 23 but citing personal reasons, he could not appear on the scheduled date which resulted in the delay of the acceptance of the resignation.
Further, in reaction to a question about this, the Speaker said that due to personal reasons he could not appear before him and after this, he had to appear before the Speaker on 30th April. As a part of the aforementioned, Ranjeet Singh appeared before the speaker Gyan Chand Gupta in the assembly building on Tuesday at the scheduled time. While answering the queries of the media persons here on April 30 after holding a meeting with Ranjeet Singh, the Speaker confirmed that Ranjit Singh had sent his resignation through a messenger which has been accepted. Since Ranjit Singh’s resignation was sent to the Speaker on March 24, it will be considered effective from then onwards. Since Ranjeet Singh had not resigned from the post of Cabinet Minister, he would not be required to take oath again to remain in the Cabinet.
On the other hand, on the question ‘’Ranjit Singh continuing as a cabinet minister without being a member of assembly’’, the Speaker said that as per the rules, any person can remain a minister for 6 months without being an MLA. Notably, Ranjit Singh will file a nomination on May 1, and considering it to be the main contest between Congress and BJP, he has claimed victory over his rival Jai Prakash by more than 2 lakh votes.