MP - Disqualification Of Congress MLA From MP Assembly Following Conviction By Court Triggers Row

The state Assembly secretariat issued a notification around midnight on Thursday, stripping Bharti of his membership in the House, hours after the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment in a 28-year-old cooperative bank fraud case.

The court, incidentally, has granted him 60 days to appeal in a higher court.

Bharti called the move by the state Assembly as ‘unjust and unfair’ and said that he will challenge it in the high court.

The Congress leader said that he was disqualified from being the member the House despite the fact that the court has kept the verdict in abeyance for 60 days, allowing him to appeal in a higher court.

He recalled the case of senior BJP leader and former minister Narottam Mishra who continued in the post of home minister in the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan ministry for 35 days after being disqualified by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after finding him guilty in a paid news case in 2017.

The ECI’s move against Mishra followed a complaint lodged with it by Bharti alleging violation of code of conduct by the BJP leader by publishing paid news articles ahead of the 2008 Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh.

The ECI had disqualified Mishra from the Assembly and banned him from contesting elections for three years.

Mishra had moved the high court and secured a stay order.

The ECI had then moved the supreme court challenging the stay order.

The case is still now sub-judice.

Bharti and Mishra are poll rivals in Datia Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh since the last three elections.

Mishra had won the assembly polls in 2008, 2013 and 2018.

However, Bharti defeated Mishra in the 2023 Assembly polls in Datia.

State Assembly speaker Narendra Singh Tomar later told the media that the court’s order has been complied with and the future court orders will be followed.