Ram Niwas Goel, the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, on the 2nd of August, disqualified Kapil Mishra, a rebel Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP.)
Mr. Goel disqualified Mishra on the grounds of defection under the Anti Defection Law, for the latter’s association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)
Ram Niwas reviewed the petition filed by Saurabh Bharadwaj, a MLA of the AAP, following which, he took the decision.
The Delhi Government also issued an order regarding the same. The order read, “Goel has today (on Friday) decided…Mishra, an elected Member of the Legislative Assembly of Delhi, elected from Karawal Nagar, has become subject to disqualification under Paragraph 2 (1) (a) — a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House, if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party — of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (Disqualification on ground of defection.) (sic.)”
Kapil Mishra’s disqualification started from the 27th of January, ever since he started campaigning for the BJP.
He shared the stage with Manoj Tiwari, the President of the BJP in Delhi and Vijay Goel, a member of the BJP, against the AAP.
However, Mishra later denied the allegations and said the disqualification order of Ram Niwas Goel was “illegal” and “undemocratic.” He also said he would challenge his orders in court.
Apart from Kapil Mishra, Saurabh Bharadwaj’s petition also sought the disqualification of 3 more MLAs of the AAP, Anil Bajpayee, Devender Sehrawat and Sandeep Kumar. A decision regarding the 3 MLAs’ disqualification is yet to be made.
Kapil Mishra will, on the 5th of August, challenge the orders of the Delhi Assembly Speaker in the court.
Stay tuned for further updates.
