Sunday, March 26 2006 10:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With disqualification petitions flooding it, the Election Commission is gearing itself to handle the fallout of the controversy over the office of profit and BJP-led 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.

This is considered significant because the Commission's jurisdiction is said to come into force when an MP or MLA becomes a subject of disqualification only if he is appointed to the post after he becomes a member of the House.