The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was on Saturday busy dousing the controversy over reference to Rajiv Gandhi during adoption of a Delhi Assembly resolution on 1984 anti-Sikh riots, as Speaker Ramniwas Goel asserted that the demand for revocation of the Congress leader’s Bharat Ratna was not part of the resolution passed by the House.

Senior AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said “no resolution mentioning late Rajiv Gandhi has been passed”. He also rejected party MLA Alka Lamba’s claim that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had sought her resignation for not supporting the resolution in the Assembly on revoking late Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna.

“Neither any resignation has been sought and nor anyone is resigning,” Mr. Sisodia said at a press conference, a day after Lamba tweeted that she has been asked to tender resignation.

Separately, Ms. Lamba told PTI, “I am not resigning.”

“I am extremely happy that the party has supported the awarding of Bharat Ratna to late Rajiv Gandhi ji. The country can never forget the sacrifice made by Rajv Gandhi ji. I am removing the copy of the resolution not passed by the house,” she tweeted on Saturday.

The Delhi Assembly had on Friday adopted the resolution on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots but the had AAP swiftly distanced itself from reference to Rajiv Gandhi, after it evoked a sharp response from the Congress.

Amid the controversy, Speaker Ramniwas Goel on Saturday said that MLA Jarnail Singh’s “proposed amendment” for taking back the “Bharat Ratna” from Rajiv Gandhi over the 1984 ant-Sikh riots in the “original resolution” was not adopted as he did not inform the House before doing so.

The Speaker said that there is a procedure to make amendments in the resolution.

“There was a discussion on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the House on Friday. In the original resolution, which was distributed among legislators and me, Rajiv Gandhi’s name was not mentioned.

“It was an emotional issue and Jarnail Singh mentioned the name of Rajiv Gandhi during his speech on the resolution,” Mr. Goel told PTI.

Speaking in the same vein, Sisodia said that the lines about former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were not part of the original resolution placed before the House and it was a handwritten amendment proposed by a member.

“The aim of the resolution moved by MLA Jarnail Singh was to help the victims of the 1984 riots gets justice. No such resolution mentioning late Rajiv Gandhi has been passed,” he said.

The issue had snowballed with AAP MLA Alka Lamba Friday saying she will tender her resignation over revoking the late PM’s award. She also staged a walkout.

Ms. Lamba had claimed after the walkout, “I got a message from the CM to tender my resignation. I’m ready to do so”.

“I was asked to support the resolution demanding taking back the Bharat Ratna awarded to former PM Rajiv Gandhi. Since I didn’t agree to this, I staged a walkout. I am ready to accept whatever punishment given to me,” she had said in a tweet on Friday.

AAP MLA Jarnail Singh, while moving the resolution in the Assembly, had mentioned Gandhi’s name while reading the text and demanded the Bharat Ratna to the Congress leader be withdrawn for “justifying anti-Sikh riots“.

The resolution called for speedy trial of cases and termed anti-Sikh riots as genocide.

Congress reacted sharply with its Delhi chief Ajay Maken saying Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed his life for the country and the true colours of AAP which is the “B team of BJP” has come out.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, who narrated the entire sequence of events in the assembly, clarified that any amendment to a resolution can become a part of the original only after it has been separately voted on by the House, which did not happen in this case.

“There was no mention of Rajiv Gandhi in the original resolution. It was an individual handwritten proposal by MLA Somnath Bharti,” he said.

Jarnail Singh had on Friday said it was only a technical shortcoming. He said though the reference to Gandhi in the resolution was not there in the written copies, it was made orally and passed by the House by voice vote.

Jarnail Singh, later had said, “At the last moment Somnath Bharti (MLA) gave me the third point about Rajiv Gandhi. The technical issue is that the third point was not there in the copies distributed to the members of the House. But everything happened on record despite the technical shortcoming.”

Mr. Bharti too had Friday said the reference to Rajiv Gandhi “was not part of the passed resolution” as the amendment was not put to vote separately. The party had no opportunity to see the same, he tweeted.

During proceedings in the House, dominated by AAP, Jarnail Singh read out the one-page resolution which also mentioned the demand to take back the award from Gandhi. After that Speaker Ram Nivas Goel told the House that the riots were a “very serious issue” and all MLAs should support the resolution by standing up.

Following this, all AAP MLAs stood up. Mr. Goel then said the resolution is adopted by voice vote.

“The House passed my resolution seeking to take back Bharat Ratna to the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who commented on the massacre saying a big tree falls, the earth trembles,” Jarnail had told reporters outside the House.