Rebel AAP MLA Mishra disqualified from House

NEW DELHI: Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Friday disqualified rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra under the anti-defection law, saying his campaigning for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls indicated that he has “given up the membership of his original political party”.

According to an order issued by the Speaker, Mr Mishra’s disqualification takes effect from January 27 this year when he shared dias with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and the then Union minister Vijay Goel against the Aam Aadmi Party.

“His (Mr Mishra’s) various tweets, press conferences, campaigns etc. in favour of Narendra 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 the 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 Mishra issued a statement after his disqualification, in which he termed the speaker’s order “illegal” and “undemocratic” and said he will challenge it in the court.

The order was issued on a petition of AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj seeking Mr Mishra’s disqualification from the Delhi Assembly. Mr Mishra said he was ready to sacrifice his MLA’s post for campaigning for PM Modi not just once, but “100 times”.

“On one side is a patriot, on the other side is a 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 in Hindi. Mr Mishra said the Speaker’s order will not stand the court’s scrutiny even for a day.

The order said that the AAP convener and leader of legislature party Arvind Kejriwal had in a letter on July 2 stated that the party has no objection to the Karawal Nagar MLA being disqualified. Three more rebel AAP MLAs — Anil Bajpayee, Devender Sehrawat and Sandeep Kumar — are facing disqualification on Mr Bharadwaj’s petition.

One-man show: BJP
The AAP is a “one-man show” with “no internal democracy”, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari alleged on Friday, reacting to the disqualification of Mr Mishra from the Assembly. Mr Tiwari further charged that anyone who raised voice against AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal was removed from the party.

Mr Bhardwaj hit back at Mr Tiwari, saying the BJP leader was trying “too hard” to get Mr Mishra inducted in his party. “Manoj Tiwari is trying too hard but the BJP leadership is not ready to formally induct Kapil Mishra.

Mr Bhardwaj also took a dig at Mr Mishra, saying he has been “absconding” from the Karawal Nagar constituency he represented and is looking for another seat but no party will induct him.