EC gearing to handle fallout of controversy

The EC will also take up NDA's battle against one of the Election Commissioners Navin Chawla.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's action of resigning her Lok Sabha seat may have made the petitions for her disqualification infructuous but the complaints against the other incumbent MPs, the most high profile of which Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, are still alive and are hanging as the sword of Damocles over their head.

The Commission has already taken notice of the petitions received against 10 CPI(M) MPs, including the Speaker, and others and in most of the cases it has sought more information from the petitions because "details were lacking", sources said.

Specifically the Commission has asked the petitioners including Mukul Roy of the Trinamool Congress to give details like the date of appointment of the MPs to the office said to be held by them along with documentary evidence to substantiate their contention that they were offices of profit.