NEW DELHI: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Friday disqualified rebel Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kapil Mishra on the grounds of defection for his association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The decision was taken on a petition received from Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj "seeking disqualification of Mishra on grounds of defection," a Delhi Assembly order said.
"Goel has, 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)," the order reads.
It says the disqualification of Mishra takes effect from
January 27. "Consequently, the Karawal Nagar Assembly Constituency seat has fallen vacant," it said.
During the Lok Sabha election, Mishra had campaigned for the BJP and sought votes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while the BJP and
AAP both were contesting for the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.
The BJP bagged all the seven seats in the national capital, while the AAP came third. On July 1, Bhardwaj moved the petition seeking the disqualification Mishra for his association with the BJP.