Turncoat MLA disqualified from House

His disqualification is effective from May 9,the day Qidwai,an MLA from Masauli seat of Barabanki,joined the Samajwadi Party at a press conference addressed by Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Speaker,Sukhdeo Rajbhar,passed the order on Friday on a petition filed by state BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya.

The order was passed under para 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution which provides for “disqualification on the ground of defection” of a member of the legislative assembly if he voluntarily gives up the membership of his political party.

Qidwai had challenged the disqualification proceedings,saying he had sent his resignation first. However,sources said his resignation reached the office of the Speaker by fax on May 13 and by mail on May 17. By then,the Speaker had already received Maurya’s petition.

However,Qidwai said he had first sent the resignation by a courier service on May 9 but the delivery man was not allowed to enter the Assembly building.

“I respect the decision of the Speaker,but my case does not fall under the Tenth Schedule. I attended the recent Assembly session as a BSP member. I had given an application for resignation from the state Assembly,I did not resign from the BSP’’,Qidwai said.

Asked about the perks and privileges enjoyed by Qidwai as the member of the legislative Assembly after May 9,the date from which he has been disqualified,Rajbhar said a decision in this regard was yet to be taken.

The Speaker said he had,in all,received four applications for disqualification of MLAs who had allegedly joined the Samajwadi Party.

He had reserved the order on the petition against Sher Bahadur Singh,while proceedings were still going on in the case of MLAs Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit and Krishna Kumar Singh alias Satish Verma. All three of them were elected on the BSP ticket.