Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Friday disqualified rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra under the anti-defection law.
Mr. Goel said the Karawal Nagar MLA’s campaigning for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recent Lok Sabha election indicated that he had “given up the membership of his original political party”.
Two more MLAs
Delhi government sources told The Hindu that two more rebel MLAs — Anil Kumar Bajpai and Devender Sehrawat — are likely to be disqualified by next week as proceedings related to the disqualification of the Gandhi Nagar and Bijwasan legislators, respectively, were completed on August 1.
As per an order issued by Mr. Goel, Mr. Mishra’s disqualification takes effect from January 27 this year, when he shared the dais with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and the then Union Minister Vijay Goel against AAP.
Mr. Mishra, who will not be allowed to attend the Monsoon Session of the Delhi Assembly scheduled later this month on account of losing his membership, said he would move the city High Court against the decision on August 5.
Karawal Nagar seat
According to AAP sources, the party is likely to field long-time Arvind Kejriwal aide Durgesh Pathak from Karawal Nagar in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.
“His [Mr. Mishra’s] various tweets, press conference, campaign etc. in favour of Modi and the BJP leave no one in doubt that the respondent [Mr. Mishra] has voluntarily given up the membership of his original political party,” the order stated.
“Whether he has formally resigned from AAP or taken the membership of the BJP formally is immaterial for a decision on his disqualification under Para 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule,” it added.
Mr. Mishratermed the Speaker’s order “illegal” and “undemocratic” arguing that sharing the dais with leaders from other political parties could not be construed as an anti-party activity. “I will challenge this order on Monday...as far as sharing the dais with leaders of other political parties is concerned even Kejriwal has shared the stage with several political leaders in the past...by this logic, even he should be disqualified,” Mr. Mishra said.
‘Patriot vs tukde-tukde’
“I am ready to sacrifice this MLA’s post for campaigning for Modi not just once but 100 times. On one side there is a patriot on the other side is tukde-tukde gang — I stood with whole Delhi. I ran the ‘all seven [Lok Sabha] seats for Modi’ campaign recently, and [now] will run ‘all 60 seats for Modi’ in Assembly polls,” he tweeted.
