Lamba disqualified from Delhi Assembly

New Delhi: Former Aam Aadmi Party leader Alka Lamba was disqualified from the Delhi Assembly by Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on the grounds of defection on Thursday.

The decision was taken following a petition by AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj after Lamba joined the Congress earlier this month. He sought her disqualification on grounds of defection.

The Speaker said Lamba, an elected member of the Delhi Assembly from Chandni Chowk, had been disqualified with effect from September 6, the day she announced her resignation from the party.

Consequently, the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency has fallen vacant," the order said.

Earlier four more MLAs were disqualified on similar grounds Reacting to this, Lamba said her journey with AAP has ended.

"My journey with AAP has ended now. I want to thank all those who supported me in my journey. I will continue my fight now with my public," she said in Hindi, adding the "democracy in AAP is ending with the dictatorship of one man".

On September 6, Lamba announced her exit from AAP and resigned from the primary membership of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party on Twitter.

The Chandni Chowk MLA, who has not been on the same page as the party on various issues since past several months, had later said she has joined the Congress on the same day after her meeting with Sonia Gandhi, the interim Congress President.

On Lamba's disqualification from Legislative Assembly, Bhardwaj said the history of Lamba's resignations has been very interesting.

"She has announced her resignation a dozens of times before, said about going to Congress so many times, and sometimes announced herself being an independent MLA. But whenever she felt that her announcement can cause her disqualification from Legislative Assembly, she would backtrack from her announcement," Bhardwaj said.

He said, but this time, her disqualification matter was with the Speaker.

"Lamba had again backtracked and said that she is still with the Aam Aadmi Party. She claimed that her resignation on Twitter should not be taken seriously. She also claimed that her own announcements of joining Congress Party should also be not taken seriously."

Bhardwaj said Lamb has been doing this every fortnight to "hog media headlines".

"For grabbing headlines in the media, she has been fooling innocent people of Chandni Chowk almost every day. How can anyone trust her? And how long can the Congress also trust her? What is the credibility of such people?"

He added that it is a matter of great satisfaction that the Speaker has finally "finished her daily soap opera".

"Now she is no more an MLA. Now sitting at home, she is free to change parties every day on Twitter," he said.

Since August, four other AAP MLAs were disqualified from the Assembly on Bhardwaj's petition.

While Anil Kumar Bajpai, Col. Devinder Sehrawat and Kapil Mishra were disqualified for their association with BJP, Sandeep Kumar was disqualified for having connections with BSP.

The tenure of the Arvind Kejriwal government will end on February 2020.