Is Amanatullah Delhi Waqf Board chairmanship in jeopardy?
Days after Delhi Waqf Board members submitted no-confidence motion notice against its chairman Amanatullah Khan to the Lieutenant Governor’s office, the AAP leader issued a video message in which he has alleged that conspiracy is being hatched against him to unseat him.
Khan is also MLA of Okhla.
The four members asked Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to convene a Board meeting within 18 days to decide the no-confidence motion, the media had reported on March 4. One member is Pervez Hashmi, a former Okhla MLA.
Hashmi contested against Khan in the 2020 Assembly elections on Congress ticket against AAP Khan unsuccessfully.
Hashmi, who represented the Okhla seat four times from 1988 to 2008 and was elevated to the Rajya Sabha in 2009, could only manage the third position with Khan getting 130,367 votes and the BJP’s Braham Singh who was the runner-up got 58, 540 votes.
It was one sided election with Khan sailing through for the second time and Hashmi, according to available data, got 5,123 votes.
In the video, message Khan brushed aside allegations charges and said it was all politically motivated to unseat him.
Terming the allegations against him “false”, Khan said: “Those accusing me of being dishonest are themselves corrupt. I have evidence against them.”
Hashmi earlier had said as reported by the PTI: “There were a lot of complaints regarding the functioning of the Waqf Board under Khan. Besides corruption and irregularities, there are other issues such as pending salaries of Imams of mosques that come under the Waqf Board’s jurisdiction and rent collection.”